


The Favor

by nutterbutterco



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Complete, Explicit Language, F/M, Oral Sex, Other, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:01:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25216669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutterbutterco/pseuds/nutterbutterco
Summary: Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...(Originally posted on Fanfiction.net)
Relationships: Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim), Gaz/Zim (Invader Zim), Keef & Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	1. The Visitor

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a fanfiction I published on Fanfiction.net under the same username :)
> 
> It has gone through a few updates, but still isn't perfect. C'est la vie
> 
> This work is completed, but reviews are always welcome :)

Gaz had been meaning to pay Zim a visit for a while, but Sophomore year of Hi Skool meant more homework and stress than even her Game Slave 2 could relieve her from. The familiar neon glow of the alien’s house grew brighter as Gaz rounded the corner, a gust of wind blowing past her thin frame, ruffling her black skirt. She had kept her look pretty much the same since she was younger, sticking to dark shades of purples, blues, and blacks with the occasional light colored band-t-shirt in the mix. Gaz had dreaded conflict, especially with someone as irritating as Zim. 

She had learned to tolerate him over the years since he was only focused on getting revenge on her stupid brother, Dib, but now she was forcing herself to talk to him, one on one. The security gnomes that decorated Zim’s lawn closely watched her as she walked down the path to his front door. As she stared at his door, Gaz sighed, debating whether or not to go through with her plan. No. She had to. She knocked on the door loudly, knowing that if he didn’t answer she wouldn’t have the strength to do it again. The door slowly creaked open before fully widening with force.

“Ah-hah! If it isn’t the Dib-sister… what do you want human?” He asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously, “has the Dib put you up to this?” 

Gaz looked the alien up and down. While he still went to the same Skool as Dib and Gaz, she couldn’t help but notice how much he had changed since he first arrived on Earth. Zim had grown taller, almost as tall as Dib who was now 6’3”. He had also stopped wearing his uniform since going to high school, probably because people started noticing he wore the same weird outfit everyday. He wore black joggers, sneakers, and a red tank top that showed off his toned figure. Gaz couldn’t exactly place when he started getting noticeably more fit, but since last year Zim’s skinny frail body had bulked up. He still wore his bad disguise too. Gaz scoffed.

“No. And you know I’m still aware you’re an alien, right?” Gaz lifted an eyebrow. Zim looked around innocently.

“Me? An alien? Don’t be silly! I’m just a normal human worm-baby… teenager? Is that the word? Yes, I AM NORMAL!” He yelled to an invisible audience behind Gaz. Gaz looked over her shoulder in confusion before being forcefully pulled into Zim’s house, the door slamming behind her.

“What the hell Zim!” Gaz yelled, ripping her arm out of his grip.

“I should be asking the same to you, Gaz-human. Are you trying to blow my cover? AH-HAH! This was the Dib’s plan all along wasn’t it!” Zim exclaimed, pointing his finger menacingly at Gaz.

“I’m not going to blow your cover you idiot. And in case you hadn’t noticed, Dib hasn’t come over here in months. Why do you think that is?” Gaz tilted her head to the side.

“Well I figured he was planning something… he always plans something! What are you getting at? Elaborate human.”

“Look, I know what happened. Dib told me everything.”

“Told you what? There’s nothing for him to tell!”

“You mean the Irken leaders didn’t exile you here on Earth because you almost destroyed their planet like six years ago?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zim responded stubbornly.

“Look, the only reason I’m here is because Dib won’t let me use Tak’s spaceship even though he knows that I’m the only one good enough to fly it! Stupid Dib. And since you’re stuck here on Earth or whatever I wanted to know if I could have your ship.” Zim blinked a couple of times, trying to process what she just said.

“You want… my ship?” Gaz nodded. Zim scratched his neck awkwardly.

“Obviously you don’t use it anymore since you’re still on Earth instead of literally anywhere else.”

“Zim still uses his ship! How dare you come here and make false accusations! The tallest would never abandon me! I am their best and most worthy invader and they would be… idiots to abandon me.” Zim’s tone softened. “Wait how did the Dib-stink know?”

“Dude, he spied on you like all the time. You were his obsession.”

“ _Were_...” Zim sighed, walking over to the couch and slumping into it. Gaz watched in silence as she stood awkwardly by the door.

“So… can I have your ship?”

“No.” Gaz’s eyes widened, looking over at the depressed alien.

“What? Why not? You’re not even using it!”

“True, but Zim’s not just going to give it to you little-Gaz. Irken technology is nothing to scoff at, so I’ll give it to you in exchange for something else.”

“Like what?”

“Eh, you decide. As long as it’s something equivalent to the value of my ship.”

“So money?”

“No! Like a favor or a weird human artifact, but Zim gets to decide whether it’s a fair trade or not. Deal?” Gaz stares at Zim for a moment before groaning.

“Ugh! Fine. You’re lucky I want that ship so badly.” Zim gives a small smirk in amusement before slumping further down the couch. Gaz can’t help but feel a little bad for the alien. 

“You can go now. GIR! Let the Gaz-whatever out.” Zim called out. Almost instantly, the little robot sped around the corner, saluting his master before running over to the door and opening it.

“Hi purple lady!” Gir exclaimed, waving.

“...Are you gonna be okay?” Gaz asked awkwardly, looking back at Zim who had a blank stare. 

“Eh.” Zim answered, limply waving his hand in the air without purpose. 

“Master’s sad.” Gir remarked, running over to the couch and jumping onto it, only to lay on Zim’s lap. Gaz stared at the pair for a moment before leaving, closing the door behind her.

It had been a while since Gaz had seen Zim so upset. Back when Zim accidentally opened a Florpus hole after he had found out that the Tallest hated him, he somehow found a way to convince himself that the Tallest still cared about him. 

Now, however, Zim actually found out for _real_ and had accepted it, which meant his crazy, loud, and annoying demeanor was now reduced to a low murmur. Gaz also realized how odd it was that Zim kept up his facade for so long only to have it crumble down when she told him that she knew he had been exiled by his own race. However, her thoughts were interrupted by Dib as she entered their house.

“Where were you Gaz? You missed Mysterious Mysteries again.”

“Dib, you know I hate that show.” Gaz grumbled, walking over to the kitchen to make herself dinner.

“I know, but I feel like we haven’t hung out in a while and maybe it could be fun to watch something together?”

“Dib, we never hang out.” Gaz retorted, grabbing a tupperware of leftover soup from the freezer and popping it in the microwave.

“I know, but…”

“Dib, this isn’t because you’re bored now that you don’t have an alien to take down anymore, right?”

“What? Pshh! No. Of course not, I’m still planning on exposing him to the world!”  
  
  


“Really? Then what have you been doing for the last two months?”

“Gaz, you know it takes me a while to come up with a plan.” Dib stated, crossing his arms.

“Sure.” Gaz replied stalely, pulling out her heated-up dinner from the microwave and grabbing a spoon. Dib watched her for a moment before sighing.

“We won Gaz, Zim is finally done trying to take over the Earth, so sorry if I’m trying to enjoy not being stressed out for a couple of months. I’ve devoted six years to him, _six years of my life planning!_ ”

“Whatever Dib, I don’t actually care. I’m just hoping that you wanting to hangout with me doesn’t become a regular thing. If you need something to do, go expose Zim or whatever but don’t drag me into it.” Gaz went into the livingroom and turned on the tv while Dib debated whether or not to follow her in.

At school, Gaz noticed Zim was missing. They were both in the same science class and his attendance was usually consistent, but today he decided not to show up. At lunch, Zim’s usual spot was overtaken by a group of girls. Gaz normally wouldn’t care, but she wanted that ship more than anything. Having an alien ship to her disposal was a dream come true. She could travel anywhere in the world, or even the galaxy, and no one could ever bother her again, especially that asshole, _Jake_. Jake was a senior at their Hi Skool and one of the worst people imaginable. 

Tall, muscular, and popular; the very guy Gaz actively avoided… or at least she had tried to. He was in her math class last semester and she thought he really liked her. Jake even asked her to their skool’s homecoming dance, but he just ended up taking advantage of her which resulted in Gaz having serious trust issues with guys. Gaz tried to push the memory out of her mind. It annoyed her that she still found herself looking at him months after it happened. It also annoyed Gaz that Zim wasn’t at school since she’d now have to walk all the way back to his house and tell him her idea for paying him back for the ship. People would probably get the wrong idea if they were to see her there... 

“Hey, Gaz!” A boy’s voice broke her train of thought. It was Keef, a boy who’d once been ‘best friends’ with Zim back in middle-school. Since then he’d mellowed out and now he was her partner in Art class. 

“Yes?” Gaz asked coldly, annoyed that he thought it was okay to talk to her in public. 

“I just wanted to make sure you could bring those photos for reference on Monday? My printer is broken and I like to have the images big enough so I can see them… sorry if that’s annoying.” Keef was much taller than Gaz and had become quite popular in her grade. He was much more mature and had definitely become more attractive over the years. 

“Yes, it is annoying.” Gaz replied rudely, pulling out her Game Slave.

“So…”

“Ugh, fine I’ll do it... in exchange for some advice.” Gaz turned to face Keef who was taken aback by her out-of-character straightforwardness.

“Um, sure?”

“Great.” Gaz cleared her throat, “let’s say you have an old car that you no longer drive but it holds sentimental value to you.”

“Wait what?”

“Just go along with it.”

“Okay...”

“And in this scenario a girl asks you if she can have it because you don’t even drive it anymore, and her stupid brother won’t let her drive his car, even though she’s a better driver!”

“Okay…?”

“And then you tell the girl that you’ll give it to her in exchange for something, but it can’t be money. What do you think the girl should give you as a fair trade?” Keef suddenly forms a mischievous grin on his face.

“I can think of a few things she can give me.” He alludes before Gaz punches him in the gut, causing him to keel over.

“Be serious or I won’t print your stupid photos.”

“Okay, okay, be cool, you know I’m not interested in girls anyways.” Keef said through gasping breaths, recovering from the blow. 

“Wait, what?”

“Dude, I’m dating Trevor.” Keef explained, standing upright again.

“Oh, sorry… I haven't been very trusting of guys lately.” Gaz said quietly, embarrassed.

“It’s cool, that joke was stupid anyways, but you set it up so nicely I couldn’t just _not_ make the joke.” Keef chuckled. Gaz rolled her eyes. 

“So anyways, in this scenario how nice is the car?” Keef asked.

“Really nice, you’re just not using it as much anymore.”

“Well assuming the guy in your scenario isn’t gay, I was kind of being serious. Cars are expensive and if he stupidly doesn’t want money in return, he’s probably just trying to get in the girl’s pants.” Keef shrugged. Gaz glared at him. “I’m being honest here.” He added.

Gaz gave a slight nod of thanks and left, but before she closed the door behind her, Keef called out.

“Hey!” She turned to look back at him, unamused. “You should come to my party tonight!” 

“I’ll think about it.” Gaz responded, slamming the door behind her.

As soon as the bell rang, Gaz grabbed her things and ran out of her English class. Usually she was slow to leave which meant that Dib was always the one to pick her up in his car, but she didn’t want to have to explain why she needed to go to Zim’s house. Dib had found out about Zim’s situation and warned Gaz to stay away from him out of fear that he may become “inspired” again like he had been when he created the Florpus Hole using their dad’s bracelet. 

Gaz didn’t take orders from Dib though because he’s an idiot.

As Gaz walked she suddenly realized she hadn’t thought of her favor yet! Keef’s advice wasn’t very helpful considering Gaz doubted Zim even knew what any of that stuff was or even had a dick for that matter. Gaz felt her cheeks redden for a minute when she thought of what would happen if Keef was right: Zim deciding to dominate her in exchange for his ship. Gaz immediately shook her head, clearing the image from her mind. There was no way Zim would ever do that, plus it would only make her feel more worthless than Jake already made her feel. Gaz suddenly stopped walking when she noticed she was already in front of Zim’s house. 

“Fuck.” Gaz muttered to herself, walking up the pathway again. This time, however, the gnomes didn’t watch her. It was as if they were powered off. Gaz knocked on the door and stood a few feet back, anticipating Zim whipping open the door. However, this was not the case as the door remained closed. Gaz sighed and knocked again to no response. She tried the door and was surprised to find it locked. _Zim never locks his door_. Gaz didn’t even think he knew how to lock it at this point. 

“Zim!” Gaz called, walking around the perimeter of the house to find a window cracked open slightly and peered inside. It was pitch black. Gaz didn’t want to be _that_ girl, but also knew she wouldn’t be able to talk to Zim if she didn’t break in. Gaz pushed open the window with ease and jumped inside only to be greeted by a pair of bright blue eyes.

“Ah! Gir!” Gaz cried, grabbing onto her chest.

“Hi scary lady!” Gir responded, chucking something at her face. Gaz pulled whatever Gir threw at her off of her face, noticing it was warm, square shaped, and sticky. She cautiously placed a sticky-finger into her mouth and was relieved to find that it was only syrup.

“Gir, where’s Zim?” Gaz asked, dropping the waffle on the floor.

“MY WAFFLE!” Gir screeched, causing Gaz to cover her ears. She then heard shuffling on the ground which she could only assume was Gir rolling around on the floor.

“Shh!” Gaz shushed him, causing Gir to stop. “Where’s Zim?” 

“I dunno.” Gir replied as his footsteps began quickly retreating, leaving Gaz alone in the darkness. She decidedly left the window cracked, before venturing into the darkness of Zim’s house, so she would know where the exit was if she needed to make a run for it. 

Gaz held her hands out, feeling for objects while mentally cursing herself for breaking her phone last week after throwing it at Dib’s head. Gaz wasn’t sure which area of the house she was in, but felt around until landing on something that felt like a chair. Behind it, a table. She must be in the kitchen. Gaz continued to take small steps, careful not to knock into anything or make much noise. She wasn’t sure if Zim would be mad at her for being in his house but she didn’t really care. It was Zim afterall. 

As Gaz walked, she began brainstorming on what kind favors she could do for Zim… that weren’t sexual: 

Maybe she could steal a bunch of Dib’s alien hunting crap and give it to him, but what purpose would that serve if he’s an alien himself? Maybe she could give him her security system stuffed animals? No, he already has a security system in his front lawn. Gaz wished Zim would have just asked for money to make her life easier. Zim always needed to make things harder than they needed to be, or so stupidly easy that even Dib could solve it. Suddenly Gaz bumped into something, it was soft. She felt along it, feeling the cool wall behind it. Was this the couch?

Gaz decided to feel it down until her hand landed on something else. She felt along it, trying to understand what it was. It felt warm and firm, but was covered in some kind of fabric. Before she could figure out what it was, it suddenly moved. Gaz covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She had found Zim and what she assumed was Zim’s leg. He didn’t say anything, so maybe he was asleep and just shifted positions. Gaz hoped that was it, figuring if Zim had noticed, he would have been freaking out. 

She was unsure what to do next. Should she wake him up? Turn on the lights? Gaz decided to find the light switch since she knew it was near the couch, having been there a few times during Dib’s excavations. She aimed her hands higher this time, feeling along the top of the couch before landing on something cord-like. She couldn’t remember if Zim had flip switches or lightbulb cords, so she felt along it trying to find the base. Suddenly she heard a soft groan below her, she ignored it, assuming it was just Zim sleeping. Suddenly she felt the tips of her fingers land on something warm and smooth, his head! She quickly scooted her fingers back up the cord, hoping he didn’t notice her. More whimpers escaped his lips as she trailed back up the cord until giving it a decisive tug downwards.

“Ah!” Zim cried out, moving the cord or whatever she was holding out of her grip.

“What the hell!” Gaz yelled as she tripped backwards and fell to the ground, hitting the back of her head. 

“What the _fuck_ are you doing here?” Zim asked angrily in the darkness. 

“I told you I was coming back, idiot!” Gaz spat, rubbing the back of her head where it hit the floor. “And turn on the fucking lights!” Gaz heard movement and suddenly the room was filled with light. Gaz now saw Zim who had flipped a switch on the opposite side of where Gaz was originally looking. His eyes were narrowed, he was breathing heavily, and his cheeks were a darker shade of green than the rest of his face. Gaz noticed one of his antenna was standing up while the other lay flat against his head. As realization set in for what she had done her face flushed a deep red.

“What. Are. You. Doing. In. Here?” Zim growled through clenched teeth. Gaz stayed on the floor, trying to compose herself. 

“I’m here for your stupid fucking ship Zim! So take my fucking favor and give me the ship so I can leave!” Gaz shouted. She knew she sounded desperate but she was embarrassed and just wanted to go home as soon as possible. Zim ran a hand over his antenne, flattening the upright one against his head. 

“What is this favor you speak of Dib-sister?” He asked, clearing his throat as his face slowly returned back to its normal color. 

“My favor is that I will agree to… do whatever you want for an entire day.” Gaz immediately regretted what she said, but had faith that Zim wouldn’t ask her to do anything too crazy. She watched Zim’s face for a response, but when she didn’t get one she repeated herself. 

“I said, I’ll do whatever you want-”

“I heard what you said human.”

“Then you have three seconds to respond before I give you a black eye Zim.” Gaz threatened, forming her hand into a fist. Zim seemed amused by this.

“I’d like to see you try. As if a tiny human could take down the likes of an irken soldier, one much _taller_ than you, I might add.” Zim taunted, causing Gaz to get up and move her fist back, ready to punch.

“But I accept your favor!” Zim said in a panicked tone. Gaz put her fist down.

“Really?” She asked, her eyes growing wide.

“Uh, yeah. Stop doing that with your eyes.” Zim began cracking his neck while walking toward the back of his house.

“Where are you going?”

“Does the Dib-sister want Zim’s spaceship or not?” Zim asked, hopping into the toilet that led to his secret lair. Gaz stared at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow, but a smirk was plastered on his face so she complied, squeezing into the toilet beside him which forced them to stand face to face. Gaz looked awkwardly at the ceiling while Zim stared off to the side as they traveled to his underground base. Zim eventually found himself staring at Gaz’s chest. She wore a purple and black striped long-sleeved shirt that was relatively low cut. Her boobs were also being pressed up against Zim’s chest which accentuated them even more. Zim continued to observe, fascinated. _Humans are interesting_ , he thought.

They finally made it to Zim’s base and Gaz quickly jumped off of the floating platform. 

“Welcome to Zim’s base, blah blah, be amazed. Computer!” Zim suddenly yelled, startling Gaz. 

“Ugh. What?” The computer responded angrily.

“Lower my ship.” The computer sighed and did as Zim commanded, lowering his ship to where the pair stood. Gaz could hardly wait to take this baby out for a spin, maybe even try modifying it; if Dib could figure it out, so could she. Zim watched Gaz’s face light-up which caused a small smile to form on his.

“You still owe me that favor little-Gaz, don’t forget it.” Zim reminded. Gaz ignored him, running over to the ship and opening the hatch. She was overwhelmed by all of the buttons and dials, eager to explore what each one did. Meanwhile, Zim was getting some interesting ideas for his favor…


	2. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...

Zim helped Gaz take the ship home, teaching her how to operate it despite her protests to figure it out herself. When they flew it back to her house, Zim explained how she could cloak it so Dib wouldn’t see it and freak out. Gaz nodded and hid it in their backyard, planning to unveil it to Dib later on.

“Thanks.” Gaz said coldly, walking with him to the front of the house.

“Eh, whatever human. I wanted to get rid of it anyway.” Zim lied.

“So when do you want the favor or whatever?”

“I will choose the date of when your favor will be necessary, little-Gaz, don’t you worry about that.” He said as he smirked, showing off his zipper-like teeth.

“Stop calling me that, Zim, or I swear you’ll regret it.” Gaz threatened, tightening her fists.

“Eh? Calling you what? Zim is great at calling people things! Why you’re complaining?” Zim asked, placing his hands on his hips confidently.

“Just call me Gaz. Not Gaz-human or Dib-sister. Just Gaz. It’s getting on my nerves.”

“Fine, Zim accepts this condition… Gazzz.” Zim said, drawing out her name for emphasis. 

“Whatever, Zim.” Gaz sighed, entering her house as Dib walked down the stairs to the kitchen, suddenly seeing Zim outside.

“Hey! Is that Zim?” Dib asked angrily, pushing Gaz out of the way. Gaz growled, but stayed back, curious to see what would happen since the pair hadn’t seen each other in months.

“Ah, if it isn’t the Dib-stink. Hello, human.” Zim greeted, narrowing his eyes while smiling.

“What the hell are you doing here? Why were you talking to Gaz?” Dib demanded, closing the door slightly so Gaz was kept out of sight from the alien.

“Hmm, I find it interesting how you only take an interest in what I do when it involves your sister…” 

“Don’t do anything stupid Zim, I’m warning you. If you even think about going near her I won’t hesitate to do what I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.”

“And what is that Dib-worm?”

“Exposing you to the world as the alien you are!”

“Oh, I highly doubt that. It’s taken you this long and still, no one believes you. I doubt anything you plan could actually work against a superior Irken soldier.” 

“Can you even call yourself Irken after your own race abandoned you? Huh?” Dib jabbed. His question made Zim’s face darken. From behind the door, Gaz could tell that her brother had struck a nerve.

“How dare you say that.” Zim growled, glaring at Dib. However, Dib held his ground. 

“Stay away from me and my sister, or I won’t hold back, Zim. I mean it.”

“Oh, you too have been warned human! You try to _fuck_ with me, and you very well know I could destroy your entire planet at any moment.”

“So why haven’t you? Huh, _spaceboy_?”

“Oh, you’re just asking for it now!” Zim spat back, clenching his fist, raising it to throw a punch. Dib backed off, not wanting to get into a full-on fist fight. Zim scoffed. “That’s what I thought. Don’t start something you can’t finish.” 

Dib glared as Zim flipped him off before walking back towards his base. Dib slammed the door and began muttering curses to himself before turning his attention back to Gaz.

“You stay the fuck away from him, you hear?” 

“Shut up, Dib. I don’t take orders from you.” Gaz retorted, heading up to her room.

“I mean it Gaz, he can’t be trusted. He’s a wild-card now that he doesn’t have an agenda. Zim could take over the Earth at any minute.” Dib followed her up.

“Really? Then why did you stop stalking him for two months?” Gaz asked rhetorically before slamming her bedroom door.

“Because I thought he was depressed and would have left the Earth by now!” Dib called back, kicking the door. 

Gaz sighed as she laid down on her bed, pulling out her new Game Slave 2, since Dib broke her old one a while ago. She wished she could have seen a fist fight between Zim and Dib, but she knew Dib was too chicken-shit to actually go through with it. 

Gaz also began to wonder what Zim’s favor would end up being. Hopefully it was something simple like her babysitting Gir for a night or doing some of his homework. Gaz didn’t mind helping other people with their homework since some harder subjects, like science and math, came easy to her. 

Later that evening Gaz found herself oddly stricken with boredom. After watching some bad television and going through a bag of popcorn, Gaz heard the painful noise of social media coming from her brother’s bedroom. Screams and loud music could be heard which meant that someone from their school was throwing a party and posting about it. 

Gaz thought back to her conversation with Keef and how he had invited her to come to his party. She had gone to a few before, but most of them were pretty boring. However, based on the noise from her brother’s phone and the fact that Keef was the only person she knew he followed that was throwing a party… maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to go.

Was Gaz really this bored? Didn’t she have better things to do? After a moment of thought, Gaz decided against her better judgement to go to Keef’s party out of sheer boredom and the appeal of free alcohol. 

Not long after she announced that she was leaving, Dib asked if he could come too and while normally Gaz would say no, she couldn’t help but feel nervous about going to a party by herself. She still assumed the worst in guys at her school and didn’t want to be caught off guard or have no one there to take her home. Gaz could tell Dib was excited by this as he raced to his room to get ready. 

Gaz got ready too, pulling on black ripped jeans and a dark blue tube top with a denim jacket. She redid her eyeliner and put on a pair of black combat boots. After admiring herself in the mirror, Gaz headed downstairs where Dib was waiting and the two siblings took off in Dib’s car. Dib hated the taste of alcohol so he wasn’t planning on drinking that night which meant Gaz could get super fucked up if she wanted to. 

When they pulled up to Keef’s house, the siblings could hear music blasting from inside. There were a few kids on his front lawn, smoking and talking amongst themselves. Dib parked the car and they walked up to the house. Dib looked slightly intimidated by the kids loitering on the front porch, but when Gaz gave them an intimidating look back, they averted their gaze from the pair. 

Gaz led the way inside, music blaring as she entered the crowded house. Beer cans, cups, and garbage were strewn about the floor where drunken teenagers were either dancing or waiting in a ridiculously long line for the bathroom. Gaz inched her way through the crowd with Dib close behind, holding onto her arm so they didn’t get separated. Once they were past the entryway, Gaz saw the DJ at the back of the large living room which had been converted into a dance floor of sorts. Everyone was dancing in this room as the ‘DJ’, who was a kid Gaz recognized from her English class, played a remix of a popular song. 

Dib let go of her arm as he noticed a pretty girl, who was in one of his classes, nearby without a drink in her hand. 

“I’ll be right back, Gaz.” Dib said quickly, running to the kitchen area where people were pouring drinks. Gaz knew he wouldn’t come back, at least not for a while, so she decided to go find Keef. Luckily, it wasn’t too hard to find him when he jumped up on the raised platform next to the DJ. Gaz pushed her way through the sea of drunk teens until she finally made it to the stage.

“Hey!” Gaz called up, tugging on Keef’s pant leg.

“Oh, shit! Gaz you actually showed up!” Keef called down, jumping off the platform and hugging her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a party before.”

“Yeah well, don’t get used to it. I got bored.” Gaz replied, crossing her arms.

“Don’t we all. Can I get you a drink?” Keef asked, noticing Gaz’s empty hands.

“Sure.” Gaz replied coolly despite drinking being one of the only real reasons she actually came. Gaz typically hated parties, preferring to stay home and play video games, but when it came to alcohol, Gaz was always up for drinking. She liked letting go of her stress and anxieties for one night. She wanted to forget her pain and start trusting men again, even if it wasn’t real trust. She liked getting to that drunken state where she felt like nothing could hurt her. When she was drunk she could talk to anyone or dance to any song without feeling judged. It was liberating. 

Keef handed Gaz a beer. She looked at it and smirked.

“My brother’s the designated driver tonight. You got anything stronger?”

Keef chuckled at this. “I’m assuming vodka? I think I have some lemonade and orange juice in the fridge if you want to mix it.”

Gaz smiled and followed Keef to his fridge where he pulled out the juices. Then he turned to the pantry where he pulled out a giant thing of vodka. Gaz’s eyes widened.

“Don’t drink too much of the stuff, you’ll be puking for hours. Trust me.” Keef warned. Gaz rolled her eyes. She’d had it a billion times before, not that she hadn’t had her bad moments with it, but at this point she knew how much she could drink.

“Thanks Keef, I got it.” Gaz replied, taking the bottle from him to pour a little bit of it into a cup before dumping lemonade on top. Keef smirked.

“I’ll see you out there.” 

Gaz nodded, taking a sip of her drink. It was pretty strong, but she drank it anyways. 

An hour or so had gone by and Gaz was feeling pretty hammered. She was still able to somewhat make conversation, but that was about it. She found herself talking to pretty much everyone at the party. When she danced, she allowed guys to grind on her, forgetting all about her fears. However, that all went away when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Gaz spun around only to find herself face to face with Jake. 

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you at a party.” Jake teased. His hair was messy. He wore a green bomber jacket over a thin white tank top which showed off his toned body.

“Fuck off Jake.” Gaz spat, turning away.

“Look I’m really sorry about last semester…” Jake started, gripping her arm and turning her around to face him again, “but I don’t like dating the girls I hook up with. If you're easy… there’s no point. I didn’t even have to ask, yet you still put out for me, so if anyone took advantage of anyone, it was _you_.” 

Gaz ripped her arm away angrily, tears forming in her eyes.

“You still look hot though. I didn’t lie about that when I took you to the dance. I like a girl who’s a little thick.” Jake complimented, even though it was implying her weight. Suddenly Gaz lost her balance and leaned on Jake’s chest for support. Jake chuckled.

“Hey, let’s go somewhere more quiet so you can sober up, for old times sake.” He suggested, wrapping his arm around her and helping her stand.

“N-No!” Gaz ripped out of his hold before falling to the floor. Jake chuckled again and picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. Gaz didn’t struggle, she felt too dizzy to fight. Some of his friends noticed and gave Jake words of encouragement, clapped, or gave a thumbs up.

“Yeah, get it man!” One of his friends called, pelvic thrusting the air. Jake laughed and carried Gaz across the room. 

“Stop. Put me down.” Gaz drunkenly mumbled. 

“Hey!” A male voice called out. Jake stopped walking. 

“Put. Her. Down.” The voice commanded. If Gaz wasn’t so fucked up she would have craned her neck to see who was talking.

“Dude I was just helping her, chill out.” Jake responded, putting Gaz down on the floor. Gaz felt really sick. 

“She said no. Who the fuck touches a drunk girl after she says no?”

“What? Are you implying that I was gonna _assault_ her? Is that the kind of person you think I am?!” Jake yelled, squaring up to whoever was calling him out. Gaz’s vision was really blurry.

“Just leave her alone. She clearly doesn’t want you to touch her!”

Gaz suddenly puked on the floor, just pure liquid. Everyone backed away quickly. Slowly, her vision went dark.

\---------------------------

Gaz awoke to the feeling of her arms being pressed against something cold. She could tell that she was sitting on her knees, leaning against something. Her eyes slowly opened as she saw the toilet she was leaning against. Gaz suddenly felt a wave of nausea hit her, puking again. Someone stoked her back. Once she was done, Gaz wiped her mouth, slowly turning around to see who was helping her. Her eyes widened when she saw Keef.

“Oh, hi.” Gaz said quietly, weirdly expecting it to have been someone else. 

“You seem surprised, were you expecting Dib?” Keef asked, handing her a towel to clean herself up.

“No, I... I don’t know who I thought it was going to be.”

“Well I was the host of this party so I need to make sure my guests are still alive by the end of it.” Keef joked. Gaz smiled weakly. “But oh man, you should have seen what happened after you blacked out.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know that weird kid? Zim? We were best friends in middle school.” 

“Zim?” 

“Yeah. He was here and freaked out at that guy, Jake, for grabbing you. It was crazy! They got into a huge fight in the front yard. Beat the crap out of each other. The cops were called! You should have seen it!”

“Oh my god. Did they get arrested?”

“Not sure. I think they may have gotten off with a warning, but I’m not sure.”

“Shit.” Gaz sat in thought for a minute. Keef watched her curiously before she stood up, holding onto the sink counter for support.

“You sure you don’t want to take a minute? You threw up a lot.” 

“No, I’m fine. I just have a headache.” Gaz began rubbing her temples. Keef ran out of the bathroom and came back with water.

“Drink this.” He handed the glass to her.

“Where is everyone?” Gaz asked between sips.

“Party ended a while ago after the cops were called. Dib’s still here. I think he’s asleep on the couch.” Keef left the bathroom again and returned with Dib a few moments later.

“I swear to god Gaz, you need to watch how much you drink. You could have gotten in serious trouble if Zim-” Dib cut himself off, horrified to think that it was _Zim_ who saved Gaz. 

“Whatever, just take me home.” Gaz moaned, walking out of the bathroom slowly while holding her hand up to her forehead in pain. Keef helped her out of his house and to Dib’s car. Dib would have helped too, but everytime he tried, Gaz slapped his hand away.

“Thanks.” Dib said to Keef as he got into his car; Gaz slumped over in the passenger seat. Keef nodded.

“No problem, you guys can come to my parties anytime.”

“Seriously? Didn’t we just ruin this one?” Dib asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nah, you guys made it more interesting. Everyone knows the best parties are the ones the cops get called to.” Keef joked, winking.

“I don’t think that’s right… but what do I know about parties?” Dib shrugged, rolling up the window and putting his car into gear before driving off into the night. 

Gaz was awake during the ride home but pretended to be asleep so Dib wouldn’t talk to her and start judging her for drinking too much. Gaz didn’t even know how she wound up black-out drunk. She tried to remember how many drinks she had, but it got fuzzy and hard to remember toward the end. She assumed three, maybe four. God she was going to have such a bad hangover tomorrow. 

As Gaz let her mind wander, she suddenly remembered Jake’s conversation with her. The hurtful words he spewed at her in an attempt to make excuses for what he did. She cringed as she recalled leaning into his chest and him thinking it was an invitation. Then she remembered being picked up and slung over his shoulder before Zim’s voice called out to him. 

Gaz’s stomach did a flip as she imagined Zim sticking up for her and fighting Jake in the front lawn. It must have been an intense fight to have the cops get called. Gaz wondered what Zim looked like in the fight. His eyes narrowed and his teeth bared as he threw the first punch. Her thoughts were cut off by Dib opening the car door. They were already home and Gaz hadn’t even realized it. 

“Can I help you out of the car or are you going to hit me again?” Dib asked tiredly. Gaz sighed and held out her arms so he could help her stand. Once up, she wrapped her arm around his shoulder and the pair slowly made their way to their house. 

When Gaz finally made it to her room she fell on the bed. Zim was the last thing on her mind before she drifted off to sleep.

Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual but it felt like a good place to end on. Also sorry if Zim wasn’t in this chapter as much, but I like slow build ups to romance, it makes it more fun to read in my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong? Either way it’s fun to write.


	3. The Babysitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...

Monday was a historic day for Dib Membrane when he went to the parking lot after school to get his car. Next to the lot was the Skool’s football field where tryouts for the team were being held. It was weird that their Skool had football season during spring semester since it was a fall sport, but at least their Skool had a football team at all. Regardless, Dib nearly dropped his keys when he saw who was trying out for the team. 

“Zim?” Dib asked himself quietly. He ran to the chain-link fence and looked out in disbelief. There was Zim, wearing padding and a red pinnie, doing stretches and running across the field with all of the other boys there. “What is he planning?”

\--

Meanwhile Gaz was stuck in English. She made eye contact with the kid who had been the DJ at Keef’s party. As they looked at each other, he suddenly began making fun of her for what happened at the party, pretending to barf. Once the bell rang, Gaz walked over to the kid and knocked all of his books off the desk. 

“What the fuck!” He yelled, picking up his books from the ground. Gaz smiled evilly and left the classroom. Her mood was actually starting to lift until she saw Jake in the hallway, talking to two girls. His face was badly bruised and his lip looked like it had been split open. By the way he was talking to those girls and gesturing to his injuries, Gaz assumed he was bragging about the fight he had last night.

Gaz’s fists clenched and unclenched in anticipation. She hated him more than she hated Dib on a daily basis in that moment and wanted nothing more than to destroy him, so she did the next best thing. 

“Oh, shit.” Jake suddenly said when he realized who was marching towards him. “Gaz, I-” His words were cut off by a swift punch to the face. The two girls he was talking to screamed. It was such a powerful blow that he fell to the ground, blood pooling out of his mouth from his lip being reopened. Her knuckles hurt slightly, but it didn’t bother her. She was just happy that she was able to get revenge on his ass.

“Never touch me again you piece of shit.” Gaz spat, kicking him in the stomach. She noticed one of the girls had run to get a teacher. Gaz didn’t care. She smiled as she gazed down at the boy who had been reduced to nothing beneath her feet. It was funny to think that he once believed he was more powerful than her. 

“She’s right over here!” The girl had returned with a teacher who immediately walked up to Gaz and grabbed her by the arm.

“Principal’s office. Now.” 

Gaz had been to the Principal’s office many times, so when she got there she basically mouthed the Principal’s words.

“Detention. One more strike equals suspension young lady.” The Principal always forgot to suspend Gaz, maybe out of laziness or maybe because he hated giving kids free days off. Either way, Gaz was just happy she got to punch that jackass in the face. 

Detention went by fast. Gaz still didn’t have a phone, but she assumed Dib got the message that she was in detention since it happened so often. She knew she’d have to walk home, but at least it wasn’t raining outside. 

“You can go.” The teacher supervising detention said. Gaz swiftly grabbed her bag and exited the classroom along with the other kids that were in detention with her. As she rounded the corner she suddenly saw Zim. He was at his locker putting something away. He wore a red hoodie and black joggers. Gaz casually walked past him, trying not to draw attention to herself. Zim slammed his locker before noticing her walk by.

“Gaz,” Zim greeted casually, giving her a quick head nod. She was caught off guard by him calling her by her actual name. It was weird hearing it outloud. She also noticed that Zim had a black eye which looked odd with his contacts in.

“Do you always wear red and black?” Gaz retorted, noticing his color-coordinated clothing.

“Yes. They are the colors of the Irken military of which I was a member. I could say the same to you _human_.” Gaz opened her mouth to protest about him calling her that when he interrupted her, “You never said I couldn’t call you that, little-Gaz.” Zim smirked.

“Whatever, Zim.” Gaz sighed, starting to walk away before remembering what she wanted to say to him. “I heard you were at Keef’s party last night… I didn’t know you went to parties.”

“Zim didn’t know you went to parties either.”

“Anything interesting happen while you were there?” Gaz asked, deciding to play dumb. Would he bring up the incident?

“No, not really. Just a bunch of stupid human teenagers acting stupid.” Zim replied casually, walking past Gaz towards the door to leave the building. She wondered if he was referring to her or not.

“Then how’d you get your black eye?” Gaz questioned in a bored tone, trying to act uninterested.

“Gir hit me in the face with a frying pan this morning.” 

Gaz rolled her eyes, annoyed that he wasn’t addressing the elephant in the room. Should she bring it up? Did Zim assume she didn’t remember what happened?

“Are you walking home, earthling?” He asked suddenly, holding the door open for her. Gaz stepped outside and nodded. 

“I will also be walking.” Zim replied.

Gaz shrugged in response and walked down the concrete steps and onto the sidewalk. Zim followed and walked next to Gaz. 

The pair walked in silence for a few blocks, observing the cars and people they passed by. Gaz kept finding herself glancing over at Zim’s eye which looked like it hurt.

“Does it hurt?” Gaz asked, realizing she had said her thoughts out loud. She mentally slapped herself for it.

“My eye? Yes. Gir hit me very hard. But I hit him back _harder_ , so victory for Zim.” Zim replied darkly. Gaz knew he was talking about Jake, but didn’t want to let on that she knew.

“Is _Gir_ okay?” Gaz asked, curious to see what Zim’s response would be. He didn’t disappoint.

“Oh, no. Not after what I did to him.” Zim said as he grinned evilly, exposing his zipper-like teeth with his eyes narrowed, but suddenly stopped when he noticed Gaz was looking at him. He cleared his throat and stared back ahead.

They walked in silence again. Gaz felt her chest tightening. She wanted to ask him about last night, but didn’t want to make him think she owed him more favors. 

“So Gaz-human-” Zim stopped himself when he noticed Gaz giving him a death-glare for calling her that nickname. “Gaz.” He corrected, “I have thought long and hard about this favor that you owe me and have come to a decision.”

“Which is what?” Gaz raised an eyebrow. _This had better be good_.

“I will require your services tonight when I’m performing maintenance on my house’s computer. It’s had some system errors recently, and last time I tried to repair it, Gir uploaded his brain to the house... it was a dark day.” Zim shuddered, remembering when Gir took over the house and sent it rampaging through the streets in search of tacos.

“So what? You want me to babysit Gir or something?”

“Yes, but you must watch him in my base. Then he can watch that horrible monkey show on the television or make waffles or whatever.”

“He can still do that at my house.”

“Silence, human! *ahem* Gaz! Besides the Dib will be there and I don’t want him messing with Gir’s programming or anything. You will comply with the favor now!” Zim ordered.

“Fine. When should I come over?” Gaz growled. 

“Come to my base around eight o’clock. Bring whatever it is you need for the time to pass quickly. Maintenance could take a while.” 

The pair rounded the corner and Gaz noticed that her house was in view. She nodded at Zim and crossed the street, leaving the alien to walk by himself. Zim watched her leave, wincing when he remembered that his eye hurt. 

Gaz entered her house and went straight up to her room, only to run into Dib in the hallway.

“There you are Gaz. Detention again? I swear to god, you get detention every week now. One of these days the karma is going to catch up to you and when that happens I won’t be there to dry your tears. Oh no.” Dib said intensely.

“That’s great Dib. Now move out of my way. I’ve got homework to do.”

“Homework? That’s odd. Usually you just go straight to playing that stupid video game.” Dib said, eyeing his sister suspiciously. Gaz walked up to him and grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, yanking him down to her eye level as she glared daggers.

“Vampire Piggy Hunter is _not_ a stupid game Dib. Your _head_ is stupid!” 

Dib raised his hands in defense.

“Okay, okay! I take it back. But you’ve got to admit that you do play that game quite a bit. Why are you going straight to homework anyways? It’s only five o’clock.”

“Because I have a lot of homework to do, okay? Get off my ass!” Gaz yelled, pushing past him and slamming the door. Dib was still suspicious though.

Gaz had finally finished her homework and looked up at the clock which read 7:45. Not wanting to be late, Gaz grabbed her Game Slave 2 and a few magazines and shoved them in her backpack. Running down the stairs she saw Dib in the kitchen eating toast. Gaz sighed, knowing she’d have to ask to borrow his car. 

“And where are you going at this hour? Aren’t you going to eat dinner?” Dib asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll eat dinner later Dib. I need to borrow your car.”

“What for?” He asked. Gaz sighed too tired to come up with a good excuse.

“I have to work on a Science project with Zim, okay?”

“Don’t you think it’s a little late to be working on a project, Gaz?”

“It’s due tomorrow and I had detention and a shit ton of homework so this is the only time we can work on it. Why the hell am I defending myself to you? It’s Zim! It’s not like he’s going to do anything bad.” 

“True, but he’s unpredictable now! Who knows what he’s planning. I saw him trying out for the football team today, Gaz! He’s never expressed interest in football before! It’s unnatural! He’s definitely up to something.”

“Zim joined the football team? Weird.” Gaz tried picturing what that would look like.

“See? Isn’t it odd? Zim means trouble. Stay away from him Gaz.”

“I don’t care. Give me the car Dib!” Gaz growled, raising her fist threateningly. 

“You better be back by a reasonable time or I’ll assume he kidnapped you and is using you for his horrible experiments.” Dib replied, hesitantly handing Gaz the keys. She snatched them from his hand and swiftly left. Dib sighed and went back to eating his toast.

\-----------------------------------------

Gaz drove to Zim’s house and parked the car out front. She looked up at the glowing building that seemed even brighter at night. Gaz slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked up Zim’s walkway to the front door, not even bothering to knock as she went inside. Gir was on the couch watching a weird show involving a chicken and two balloons. Gaz watched the TV show in confusion before Zim walked into the living room.

“You’re late human.” He stated before raising an eyebrow as he also saw what Gir was watching.

“Don’t call me that.” Gaz warned, narrowing her eyes. Zim looked back at Gaz, about to protest but decided against it. He wasn’t wearing his disguise. Gaz also noticed that he was wearing a grey tank top instead of something red, causing her to wonder whether he did that on purpose because of what she said to him earlier. Gaz suddenly felt heat on her cheeks when she noticed his toned abs and chest outlined by the fitted tank-top. _Stop! This is just stupid._

“I’ll be down in the equipment room if you need anything. Hopefully you won’t. Gir, behave while I’m gone!” Zim instructed, pointing at the robot. 

“Okie-dokie!” Gir responded before pulling an entire bucket of fried chicken out of nowhere. Zim shuddered before making his way back into the kitchen to go down to the lower levels of his base. Gaz watched as the robot began eating chicken, setting her backpack on the cushion next to him.

“How do you even eat? You don’t have a stomach.” Gaz pointed out.

“Yes I do!” Gir yelled back, throwing the now empty bucket at her. “Hey! Wanna make cupcakes? Youuuu wanna make cupcakes?” Gir asked annoyingly. Gaz rolled her eyes but nodded. Gir screamed, “YAY!”

The robot then proceeded to drag her into the kitchen and pull out an assortment of random ingredients from the fridge and cabinets. He even pulled out inedible items from the garbage like wrappers and cans. 

“Now mix them together until they start glowing and fly out the window,” Gir instructed, handing Gaz a spoon and a bowl. Gaz took them and watched the robot start slamming all of the ingredients into the bowl. 

  
“STIR!” He screamed, scaring Gaz. She began stirring angrily, close to losing her temper with the idiotic machine. 

“I’ll be right back,” Gir stated, suddenly running out of the room to sit on the couch, turning on the TV before falling asleep. Gaz growled, chucking the spoon on the floor. She went back into the living room and opened her backpack, pulling out her Game Slave 2 to begin playing it. The house was quiet for a while before a loud crashing sound from below startled her.

“FUCKING HELL! What’s wrong with this stupid piece of-” Zim yelled as more crashing sounds muffled the rest of his speech. Gaz was amused by his anger as she let a small smile form on her lips before going back to her game. Suddenly her arm was tugged down by a curious robot.

“Whatcha playing?” Gir asked, staring at her screen. 

“A game.” Gaz responded, spamming buttons while killing hoards of piggies.

“Can I play?” Gir asked. 

“Sure, just give me a second to beat this level.” Gaz replied, moving the screen closer to her face as she became more focused on the game. Meanwhile, Gir hopped off the couch and started wandering into the kitchen. The noise of him climbing into the garbage can alerted Gaz as she stood up and ran over to the trouble-making android. 

“Gir no! Zim said you can’t go down there.”

“Aw, I wanted to show him my new pet.” Gir cried, pulling a rabid raccoon out of his mouth. Gaz backed away slowly before Gir set it free. It scurried around the house before jumping into the trash can, falling down into Zim’s underground base. 

“Yay! Master’s gonna be soooo happy!” Gir exclaimed, pleased with himself. Gaz’s eyes widened as she heard Zim begin screaming down below.

“Who let this racoon into the house?!” Zim cried. “Get it off me!” Gir began laughing hysterically before falling asleep on the floor. Gaz already felt exhausted and it hadn’t even been an hour with Gir yet. She picked the robot up and carried him back into the living room, placing him on the couch. Gaz wondered if she could chain him up somehow to keep him from destroying the house and suddenly remembered that Dib had “alien proof” handcuffs in his car! Gaz hesitated getting them though since they were outside which meant that the robot would be left alone. Gaz began to wonder if maybe Zim had anything like that in his house. 

She stood up and decided to go explore, looking back every so often to make sure Gir was still asleep. Gaz rounded the corner of the kitchen but realized there wasn’t anywhere else to go except down. She sighed, debating whether or not it was worth it to venture down to the lower levels while Gir was still asleep. Gaz walked back over to the little robot and stared at him for a moment thinking. Then she looked down at her shoes. She got an idea. 

Gaz removed her shoes, using her shoelaces as a makeshift rope, tying it around Gir’s wrists and then the couch’s leg. She made sure the knot was super tight. Gaz considered using the strings on her backpack to tie up his legs too, but decided that was too much. She quickly went back to gaming, but couldn’t concentrate as her mind began wondering. What did the rest of Zim’s base looked like? Gaz had only seen his lab a few times but she knew there were other levels she hadn’t seen yet. 

She looked back down at the robot who was sound asleep before letting curiosity get the best of her. She walked over to the small table next to the TV. It lifted up and the floor opened to reveal a platform. Gaz had used this entrance once before when she went looking for Dib back when it was her turn to choose where they went out to eat with dad and he had been kidnapped. Gaz stepped onto the platform and it lowered instantly. She prayed the robot didn’t do anything stupid while she was gone, but he probably would. 

The platform landed in a familiar room which had small chambers that teleported users to various places. Gaz decided to go into the far left one which transported her to a large room with tanks filled with water and a metal table at the center of the space. Gaz guessed this was where Zim conducted experiments on test subjects. Imagining Zim inflicting pain on others made Gaz’s heart flutter, but she shook it off reminding herself of Zim’s annoying stupidity. Gaz went back into the chamber that sent her there and, once transported back to the first room, tried the second chamber. This one led her to a tiny room that consisted of a chair with tons of buttons and monitors that seemed to be powered off. Gaz pressed a button and her eyes widened as the screens lit up. They appeared to be security cameras Zim had set up around the neighborhood. Gaz messed around with the buttons and monitors for a while, spying on random civilians before growing bored. 

Gaz explored the rest of the rooms, intrigued by the complexity of them while wondering how Zim utilized each room back when he was hellbent on taking over the Earth. 

Finally, there was only one last chamber to enter, but Gaz decided against it, knowing it would lead her right to where Zim was. Borely, she began looking around the room she was already in, but this time she noticed a small door toward the back that she had never seen before. Gaz walked toward it and entered, surprised by what she found inside. There was a circular bed with a weird looking lamp placed next to it. The room was pretty bare except for a few jars of glowing substances decorating the shelves on the walls. _Was this Zim’s bedroom...?_ Gaz scanned the room for a moment before she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her.

“Are you looking for something?” Zim asked, standing outside of the room with his arms crossed. His shirt was stained with what looked like oil and a pair of goggles hung around his neck. In his hand he carried what looked like a wrench of some sort.

Gaz quickly stepped out of his room and closed the door to face him, sweat forming on her forehead. Zim walked past her, opening the door to his room and looking inside.

“There is nothing of interest in there human, I can assure you. Now what are you doing? Where’s Gir?”

“Sleeping upstairs. I was just curious.” Gaz explained poorly, looking at her shoeless feet in embarrassment. Zim stared at her feet too.

“Gaz-human, where are your shoes?”

Gaz didn’t even protest him calling her that this time as she felt her face heat up. However, she nearly screamed when Zim suddenly touched her face with his gloved hand. 

“Why does your face change color? Are you sick, human?” Zim asked. Gaz became overwhelmed with his questions, so she moved away from his hand and walked back to the platform which would bring her back up to the living room. Zim watched her, confused, as the platform raised her up. 

Gaz decided to bury her head back in her Game Slave 2 and pretend nothing had even happened. Gir, luckily, had remained asleep during the whole endeavor. However, it wasn’t long before Zim resurfaced in the kitchen, walking into the living room to face Gaz. She hid behind her game, ignoring him, before he gently lowered it from her face. 

“Gaz?” He asked cautiously, unsure how she’d react. Gaz took a deep breath and looked up into his ruby eyes which were narrowed in concern.

“What Zim?” Gaz sighed, feeling her chest tighten up in anticipation. Zim glanced around, looking at the situation in front of him. He saw Gaz’s shoes without shoelaces, her feet covered only by a pair of thin striped socks, and Gir’s hands tied together by shoelaces. Suddenly Zim burst out laughing, waking up the robot who suddenly began laughing with him. 

Gaz’s embarrassment quickly turned to anger as she glared at Zim who was laughing so hard that tears began to form in his eyes. 

“Hehehehe! Why are we laughing?” Gir suddenly asked. Zim wiped the tears from his eyes and sighed, before looking back at Gaz who was giving him a sinister look.

“I just find it amusing how you tied Gir up using your shoelaces. I applaud you, human. I haven’t laughed that hard in months.” 

Gaz’s face heated up again as embarrassment and anger overwhelmed her. Before she could threaten Zim, however, he pointed at her cheeks.

“See, you are sick! Your face keeps changing color!”

“I’m not sick Zim.” Gaz said through clenched teeth. “Now go back to fixing your computer before I destroy you.”

“Oh, Zim is done with that now little-Gaz.” Zim explained. “Now leave before you infect me with your sickness.”

“For the love of God! I’m not sick! Human faces change color when… well you should know! Your face changed color after I-” Gaz cut herself off, remembering when she mistook Zim’s antenna for a lightswitch. Zim still looked confused. 

“I’m not sure what you mean human.” Zim replied stupidly. Gaz slapped her forehead and walked over to him, tugging on his antenna harshly. Zim let out a squeak in response. His cheeks turned dark green.

“See? Not sick.” Gaz explained before walking back to put her Game Slave in her backpack. Zim stared at her in shock. “What?” She asked, noticing this.

“You clearly don’t know what you just did, but these antennas on the top of my head are not just for show, Gaz.” Zim looked serious, his eyes narrowed. 

Gaz shrugged, “So?”

“...How do I explain this?” Zim began rubbing his temples tiredly, “What are those… those things on your chest?”

Gaz immediately blushed, crossing her arms over her chest. “What?!”

“Sorry, I haven’t had time to study human anatomy or whatever… although now that I think about it I probably should have.”

“Zim, I’m not going to give you an anatomy lesson right now!” Gaz exclaimed, outraged.

“Fine, then. As payback for abandoning your post when I clearly told you to stay with Gir, I order you to tell me about human anatomy!”

“Are you serious?!”

“Deadly serious.”

“No way! I never agreed to this.” Gaz protested.

“Then I’ll have no choice but to take the ship back. I may actually have a use for it now anyways.”

“Ugh! Fine! You’re gonna regret this though Zim!” Gaz yelled, clenching her fists before angrily plopping down on the couch next to Gir.

“Let’s go down to my lab for this, I may need to write some of this down for future… er reference.” Zim suggested, heading to the little table next to the tv and hopping on the platform. Gaz reluctantly followed and stood next to him before the platform lowered, taking them to the depths of Zim’s lair…


	4. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...

Zim and Gaz were lowered to the large room where Zim’s bedroom was and rounded the corner to the teleportation chambers. They took the one on the left and were transported to the room where human experiments were most likely to have taken place. Zim walked towards a monitor in the room and pressed a few buttons on the dashboard below it to turn it on. After a moment of silence filled with beeping from the computer, a clipboard and pen shot out of a slot on the desk. Zim picked them up and turned back to Gaz.

“Sit on the table please.” He instructed.

“Why?” Gaz asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We could also do this standing, up to you.”

Gaz sighed and sat on the metal table, Zim stood in front of her. “So I want to understand how human physiology is similar to Irken physiology. I’ve always been curious. For instance, those things on your chest… what are they?”

“Boobs?” Gaz asked tiredly.

“Is that what they’re called… what are they used for?”

“Did you skip health day or something, Zim? Why can’t you just look this stuff up on your own? If I’m not home soon Dib’s going to think you kidnapped me.”

“Silence human! Zim asks the questions! Answer Zim!”

“They’re used for things like feeding babies or something... I guess.” Gaz replied, blushing while avoiding eye contact with Zim.

“Ah, and do male humans find them attractive? I have caught them staring at these flesh sacs many times. It confuses me.”

“I guess so… and don’t call them that!”

“Interesting. This all sounds similar to some aspects of old Irken mating traditions before DNA merging was used as a more efficient method of reproduction. I find it interesting to see these ‘boobs’, as you call them, since no such things on Irk exist anymore.”

“For the love of God Zim, please stop saying ‘boobs’. I can’t take it.” Gaz growled, blushing profusely.

“If Zim could, I would like to inspect these things on your chest for further data collection.” Zim explained, moving his hand toward her breast. Gaz smacked it away.

“Fuck no! Don’t touch me Zim.” Gaz seethed, covering up her chest with her hands.

“But why? It’s for research!”

“You just can’t. The only people I let touch me like that are guys I date.” 

“Date?” Zim asked, clearly confused.

“Yes. Date.”

“Oh! You mean courtship! I see, so the goal of courtship on Earth is to touch these ‘boobs’ as you call them?”

“No, dating is about more than just… _that_. Maybe to some guys it’s just about sex, but for me it’s about… I dunno. Connection and respect or whatever. At least it should be!”

“What do you mean Gaz-human?” Zim seemed to have forgotten about Gaz’s rule about nicknames, but Gaz had given up correcting him at this point.

“Nothing. I liked this guy but... he was only using me for sex. He didn’t want a relationship.” As Gaz said this, a look of realization overtook Zim’s face.

“...His name wasn’t Jake Ryan was it?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Zim may have… overheard some things he said in the lunchroom… a while back.” 

Gaz’s eyes widened before a look of anger reached her face. “What?”

“Yes. This Jake Ryan guy started telling everyone how you were an ‘easy lay’ or whatever that means. He also said some other things about making you ‘come’ a billion times? I don’t see how that is something to brag about. I made you _come_ down to my lab just now, but perhaps that’s because I am such a strong and capable Irken. I bet I’ve made you _come_ far more times than that Jake Ryan guy has!” Zim ranted.

Gaz would have stormed out of Zim’s base, drove to Jake’s house, and murdered him for what he said about her, but Gaz was too busy trying to contain her laughter from Zim’s confusion about the word ‘cum’. She finally burst out laughing, confusing Zim.

“What’s so funny Gaz? Zim hasn’t said any jokes.”

“Ha! No… no you didn’t.” Gaz replied, wiping tears from her eyes. “You really need to watch some porn or something. I don’t feel like explaining this stuff to you.”

Gaz hopped off the table and left the room, still giggling. Zim watched her leave in confusion. He had no idea what he said that made her laugh so hard. In fact, he couldn’t recall having ever seen her laugh before. It was what the humans called, “cute”. Zim smiled thinking about Gaz’s face all scrunched up from laughing, but shook his head as he tried to stay focused on the task at hand.

“Computer, look up this... _porn_ thing.” Zim commanded as soon as he heard Gaz leave his lab.

“Searching… here are all search results for ‘porn’.” The computer replied, pulling up various images and videos on the screen. Zim recoiled back in disgust.

“Ah! What on Irk is that?! Computer, explain what is happening to these humans!”

“Ugh… fine. According to scientific articles focused on human biology and reproduction, female humans have something called a-” The computer’s voice was cut off by the shrill screams of a familiar voice.

“Zim! Where are you? Why was Gaz at your base so late! I know you’re up to something!” Dib’s voice bellowed through Zim’s house. Zim rolled his eyes and stood up, staring at the computer screens again before leaving and heading up to the main floor.

“Why are you here human?” Zim asked, crossing his arms. He looked around for a moment, trying to find Gaz.

“She’s not here, I got here just as I saw her drive off.” Dib replied, noticing Zim’s eyes searching for Gaz, “It’s almost midnight! Why was she here so late Zim? Tell me!” 

“Why don’t you ask her yourself, worm-monkey? It’s not my business to tell you.”

“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that.” Dib threatened, walking over to Zim’s trashcan and jumping inside to get to the lower levels of Zim’s base. Zim’s eyes narrowed as he ran after him, but caught up to him quickly when he saw Dib stop dead in his tracks, staring at the computer screens.

“Dib?” Zim asked, moving closer to Dib cautiously. 

“Zim… why do you have porn up on your computer?” 

“I am trying to understand human physiology.”

“This better not have anything to do with my sister.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Good, because if it turns out that it does, I’m going to kill you.” Dib said through clenched teeth, turning around and grabbing Zim’s shirt, pulling him close.

“Relax Dib, no harm will come to your sister...” Zim smirked mischievously, “unless you give me a reason.”

“You stay the fuck away from her! I ought to kill you for whatever sick twisted experiment you did on her tonight!”

“I did no such experiments Dib-stink. She wouldn’t let me anyways.” Zim’s grin widened.

“That does it!” Dib cried, releasing Zim’s shirt before punching him in his already bruised eye. Zim cried out in pain, clutching his eye, before standing back up and returning the favor. This sent Dib flying across the room. Dib hit the back of his head hard against the floor. He gripped it in pain.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Storming in here and accusing me of things I have yet to do! Do yourself a favor and get out of my base before I break something.” Zim seethed, clenching his teeth while holding a hand up to his now bleeding eye.

“Fine, I will, but only because I have a math test tomorrow and if I don’t do well, I’ll have to repeat the unit!” Dib replied angrily, standing up and wiping off blood from his nose. “Fucking alien scum.” He muttered as he passed Zim. Zim glared in response, but let Dib leave the base in peace. 

“Computer, tell me more about this human mating ritual!” Zim exclaimed loudly so that Dib could hear it on his way out. 

\---------------------------------------

Gaz sat in science class with a dark expression on her face. She knew Dib had gone to Zim’s after she left since he immediately began banging on her door once he returned home, demanding to know if Zim had done anything bad to her. Gaz laughed in Dib’s face as she recalled Zim not understanding what ‘cum’ meant before firmly telling Dib to go fuck himself. Gaz was satisfied that Dib didn’t pry further, but she could definitely tell it bothered him not fully knowing what happened that night.

Currently, Gaz was plotting her revenge on Jake now that she knew he told the whole skool about their hookup. She wanted him to fear her very existence and knew she’d have to do way more than just punch him in order to achieve that. 

From across the room, Zim was watching Gaz intently. His damaged eye was covered by a bandage of some sort. 

While having Gaz tell him about human anatomy in the first place was just as payback for her snooping around his base, Zim had actually become fascinated by it. At first he had trouble understanding before why female body parts like butts and boobs were so appealing to human males, but now Zim was starting to get the appeal. 

He noticed how Gaz’s butt and thighs were accentuated by her sitting on the seat. Zim also noticed how everytime she leaned forward, her breasts would push up against the table. He was curious to know what boobs felt like against his own hands. If they were as squishy as they looked.

Gaz suddenly dropped her pencil which rolled behind her seat. As she turned around to pick it up, she met Zim’s stare. She looked at him for a moment, inspecting his face which looked more beat up than yesterday before swiftly picking up her pencil and turning back around. Zim felt his face heat up in response. Did she notice him staring at her body? Was she mad? Zim still wasn’t sure how openly sex was talked about amoung humans, but judging by Gaz’s reaction to his questions about her chest and Dib’s shocked reaction to porn, Zim assumed it was a tabboo subject.

Once class ended, Zim picked up his things and headed for the door before Gaz stopped him.

“What’s wrong with your eye?” She asked. Zim tried to read her face and tone to see if she was angry, but couldn’t tell.

“Oh, nothing… Gir scratched it. That’s all.” Zim lied. Gaz saw right through it.

“I know Dib went over to your base last night. It was obvious.” Gaz stated.

“Oh, yes. The Dib-child… he came in making all of these wild accusations that Zim had no part of.”

“That’s what I thought.” Gaz lowered her head angrily before sighing. “By the way… why were you so interested in human anatomy all of the sudden? Not that I care, but it’s kind of weird. Was it just payback for-”

“It’s for a perfectly normal reason, I can assure you! I.. um… oh yes! I joined the football team!” Zim quickly lied, not wanting to get into the whole anatomy thing again with Gaz since it was clearly a touchy subject.

“Oh yeah, Dib told me about that. I thought he was lying- wait you actually made the team?”

“Indeed, Gaz-human. Only someone as strong and intelligent as myself could make such a team. Oh yes. With my leadership, this skool’s football team will destroy any team in its path. Soon, all humans will kneel before the almighty power of the Squirrels!” 

“Oh yeah, I forgot our skool’s mascot was the squirrel.” Gaz noted, smirking. Zim’s eyes narrowed.

“You dare taunt Zim? Soon my name will be feared among other Hi Skools as we conquer each one. No one will stand in our way! MUAHAHAHA!” Zim laughed triumphantly. Gaz sighed and left, knowing that he’d keep laughing like that for hours.

Later that afternoon, Gaz found Jake in the parking lot on his phone. Now was the perfect opportunity to end him once and for all. However, as she rolled up her sleeves and prepared to storm up to him and ruin his life, she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She whipped around angrily and suddenly found herself facing Keef.

“Oh.” Gaz sighed, relaxing.

“Hey. Couldn’t help but notice you were about to beat the crap out of Jake again.” Keef joked.

“Clearly he didn’t understand the dangerous situation he put himself in when he decided to spread rumors about me to the entire school.”

“Fair point, but didn’t you get detention like yesterday?” 

“Yeah, why do you care?”

“Look, I know we’re not that close… and I doubt you even see me as a friend, but if you beat him up you might just make things worse.”

“How would you know?” Gaz asked angrily.

“Because I’ve been in your situation before. Not exactly the same, but I’ve had some shit spread around that I wasn’t ready for people to hear. Trust me, if you fight back, people will just assume the rumors are true. It’s better for people to just forget about them on their own. People have probably already forgotten. It’s been a few months anyways, right?” 

“Yeah…”

“I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, but beating the crap out of him isn’t going to fix the damage that’s already done. Destroy him in the summer or something. He’ll probably do something else that’s shitty then, so he’ll deserve it.” Keef suggested. Gaz sighed and thought for a moment. He had a point and detention was a waste of time anyways. She nodded, sending Jake a death glare before seeing Dib pull up with their car.

“Hop in!” Dib called, rolling down the window. Gaz rolled her eyes, but looked back at Keef.

“Thanks.” She said quietly before running over to Dib and getting in the car. Keef nodded and waved before getting into his own car. As Dib pulled away from the skool, Gaz looked out the window and saw the football team practicing, Zim among them.

\------------------------------------

Late at night, Gaz lay in her bed deep in thought. Normally she gave absolutely zero shits about what Zim was up to, but even for him, his behavior had been odd. Zim had never really expressed interest in human anatomy or physiology before, so why was he so intrigued now? Was it payback for her snooping around his lab? He did seem pretty ticked off about her checking out his room. Gaz suddenly remembered touching Zim’s antenna. Was _that_ what set him off? 

Gaz still had no idea what his antenna was in terms of Irken sexual organs, but she could take a guess. However, Zim said that Irkens didn’t reproduce the way humans did so maybe his antenna wasn’t the equivalent of what she was thinking. She frowned, puzzled. And why did Zim suddenly join the football team? That felt like it came out of nowhere. Gaz sighed and looked at her clock, it read 1 am. She couldn’t sleep so she decided to go for a walk. 

Gaz had gotten into the habit of taking night walks, ever since the incident with Jake, to try to erase parts of that bad night from her head. Plus, everyone in the neighborhood knew to fear her, so she knew no one would try to mess with her. Gaz brought a baseball bat with her just in case though. 

As Gaz stepped outside, the cool night air greeted her, sending chills up her arms. Gaz rubbed them to keep warm and headed out into the night. She wasn’t sure where she wanted to walk. Usually she just stuck to the block and would walk in a circle until she grew tired, but tonight Gaz felt more adventurous. She walked across the street, making sure to stay within the neighborhood at least, but venture out a little further. She walked along the sidewalk, absently gazing at the houses that resided there. A little dog emerged from a dog house and began yapping at her, but Gaz sent it a chilling look that caused the dog to whimper. 

After a good while of walking, Gaz decided to head back. She hadn’t been paying much attention to where she was going, but figured she was near her house. Gaz crossed the street that she thought would lead her the right way, but suddenly realized she didn’t recognize where she was. Anxiety started to set in as Gaz searched for any recognizable landmark. Gaz also remembered how she didn’t even have her phone with her, so she was screwed. She picked up the pace walking faster, crossing more streets while glaring at anyone who was out that night so they knew not to mess with her. 

More time went by and Gaz began to feel cold. She clutched her sweater to herself in hopes of warming, but to no avail. Taking a break, Gaz sat on the front steps of a random house so no one would think to bother her. She hoped no one would kick her off their steps as she sat, thinking of directions to get home. Suddenly from the corner of her eye Gaz saw a garbage bin jerk to the right. She watched it intently before it moved again. Gaz walked towards it and decided to tap it with her bat. Once the bat made contact with the metal bin a green dog jumped out.

“Ah!” Gaz yelled, backing up quickly.

“Hi Gazzy!” Gir yelled, eating a random can of corn from the trash.

“Gir?” Gaz asked, confused as to why he was there. She stared at the robot who was badly disguised as a dog for a moment before she heard what sounded like a car drive by.

  
“Gir! What are you doing in there? Are you trying to blow our cover?” Zim’s voice called from behind Gaz. She turned around to see the alien, with his terrible disguise on, riding some kind of hover pad.

“Zim?” She asked, equally as confused. Zim froze when he saw her, jumping off the device and chucking it in some nearby bushes suspiciously. 

“Gaz?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at the bat she was holding.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Gaz explained.

“Irkens don’t need sleep.” Zim gloated before motioning to Gir. “Gir, come.” Gir obeyed, knocking over the trash can loudly before running over to his master. 

Gaz watched the pair for a moment before sitting back down on the steps. Zim noticed this as he began rustling through the bushes to find the hover pad he stupidly threw away.

“Lost little-Gaz?” Zim asked absent-mindedly as he searched.

“N-No! What were you even doing out here?” Gaz asked, changing the subject quickly.

“Oh, much. You couldn’t possibly understand the complexities of an exiled Irken soldier. Every day provides new possibilities for global conquest.”

“So you’re trying to take over the world again?” Gaz asked boredly. Zim stared at her in silence for a moment.

“You can’t prove anything!” Zim yelled, pointing at Gaz intensely. Gaz smirked in response.

“How are you going to take over the world without a ship, Zim?”

“Why else do you think I’m out here collecting materials, little-Gaz? Ah, you have much to learn human. Much to learn.” Zim shook his head disappointedly as he said this. Gaz rolled her eyes.

“Good luck with that.” Gaz replied, standing up and stretching before walking toward the alien and pulling his hoverboard out of the grass behind the shrub, handing it to him.

“Oh. Thanks.” Zim took the board and powered it up, standing on it. He was about to leave when he looked back over at Gaz, who didn’t look as if she knew where she was going.

“Do you- er… need a ride?” He asked, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Gaz turned to face him.

“Does it look like I’m lost?” She asked dangerously.

“Yes.”

“... fine.” Gaz trudged over to Zim and got on the back of his hoverboard. Gir sat at the front of it and waved enthusiastically. Gaz rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, but as soon as the trio took off, Gaz squeaked and grabbed onto Zim’s waist for dear life, eventually wrapping her arms around him. She could tell Zim was probably enjoying himself seeing her like this, but tried her best to ignore her urge to punch him in the gut.

Zim was indeed smirking which only made him fly the board faster.

“Zim, I swear. If you mention this to anyone I will end you.” Gaz threatened as she held onto Zim tighter.

“Zim makes no promises.” He teased as they sped down an alley to stay out of sight from passersby. Gaz gasped as they made a sharp turn, closing her eyes and scrunching up her face in anticipation before opening them again and breathing a sigh of relief. Zim chuckled lightly at this.

Before Gaz knew it, they emerged from an alley across from her house. She stared at her house for a moment. It looked so peaceful at night. The city was lit up in the distance, Zim stared out at the city too. To him it wasn’t as beautiful as his own home planet, but it was still nice to look at. He powered off the board to allow Gaz to get off with ease. Gaz stepped off before realizing he had lost her baseball bat on the way there. She muttered a curse to herself before turning back to Zim, debating what to say.

Zim watched her for a moment. She was wearing sweatpants and a baggy sweatshirt. Her hair was messy from the wind and her cheeks were reddened from the cold. Zim had never inspected the features of her face before but found himself staring before he could stop himself.

“Thanks… for saving me at that party.” Gaz said suddenly, averting eye contact and catching Zim off guard.

“Eh?” Zim asked.

“Don’t make me say it again.” Gaz stated quietly, staring down at her feet.

“Oh. You are welcome… human.”

“I’ve realized I’m not as good at taking care of myself as I thought.” Gaz continued, staring out at the city. 

“Look human- Gaz… I am not good at this whole ‘feelings’ and ‘advice’ thing, but if it makes you feel any better, that Jake guy is a jerk and… you shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened.”

“But what if it is my fault? I could have said no… there were moments where I wished it could have stopped, but it didn’t and- he kicked me out at four in the morning in the middle of the street… I didn’t have shoes… underwear… god-” Gaz let out a shaky breath as tears formed in her eyes. She didn’t know why she was telling all of this to Zim, but for some reason it felt right to let all of this built up tension and emotion out. She wanted someone else to know the weight she had been carrying for months, even if the person who heard it would never understand it or give any helpful advice. Gaz didn’t expect him to or even want advice. She just wanted him to listen.

“I’d never had anxiety before until after then. If I hear a song that he had playing that night, I start hyperventilating. I feel sick to my stomach if a guy even touches me unless I’m drunk… I just- I just wish I had listened to myself. I knew this was going to happen and I let it happen.” Gaz let out more shaky breaths as tears streamed down her face. While she hated crying, especially in front of other people, in this moment she didn’t care. It was too late to hide anything anymore. 

Gaz felt that she couldn’t speak without risk of bursting into tears, so she stopped and sat down on the curb. Gir sat next to her and leaned against her to comfort her. There was nothing but silence for a few moments before Zim sat on Gaz’s other side and sighed.

“Human courtship confuses me. On Irk, no one even knows what love really is or how dating even works. Everyone is independent from each other and when I came to Earth I assumed that would be the way it is here too...” Zim commented, still staring ahead, “...but it’s not. Human companionship is complicated. Apparently humans do this thing where they give each other rocks and then promise each other that they will stay together for the rest of their lives. But then there are humans who ‘date’ and never do this strange ritual. Or in your case do everything but date? Zim is still unclear on how love is formed or how humans decide to stay together or not to stay together.” Zim added, suddenly laying back against his Pak and staring up at the sky.

“Humans also have no idea how love is formed.” Gaz replied quietly, sniffling before laying on her back next to Zim. They stayed like that for a long time before Gaz started to feel her eyelids grow heavy. She groaned as she sat up, forcing herself to get back to her room to sleep. Gir stood up with her.

“Are you sad?” He asked, tugging on her sweatpants.

“Yeah, but I’ll feel better tomorrow.” Gaz replied, patting the robot on the head. Gaz looked over at Zim who looked like he was asleep on the ground. “Take Zim home, okay?”

Gir saluted her before walking over to the alien and kicking him in the head.

“AH!” He groaned, clutching his head in pain.

“Time to go home master!” Gir yelled, grabbing the hoverboard and turning it on. Zim muttered something incoherent and sat down on the board tiredly. Gaz stared at him for a moment, wondering if things would change between them now that she had told him everything. She felt herself moving closer to the alien, as if her legs were moving on their own. Before she knew what she was doing she leaned down and gave the alien a quick peck on the cheek.

“W-What was that?” Zim asked, seeming to have woken up immediately, touching his cheek.

“Er… nothing. Good night Zim.” Gaz answered awkwardly before turning on her heel and heading into her house, mentally slapping herself for doing that. 

Zim watched her leave, a small smirk growing on his face as he touched his cheek again. “Take me home quickly, Gir. I have some more research to do.”


	5. Football

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone else listen to music when formatting their fanfics or is it just me?

Friday evening was the first football game of the season which was a big deal for Gaz and Dib’s Hi Skool. The Squirrels (their skool’s mascot) were especially competitive considering they were playing one of their rival teams, the Tigers. 

Thus, during the day, the entire team ran screaming through the halls wearing their jerseys with war paint on their faces. 

Gaz walked down the hall before the stampede of boys forced her to grip the lockers as they ran past her, shoving kids out of their way, or in some cases, gripping kids by their shoulders and forcing them to chant for the team. As Gaz watched the chaotic scene unfold, she suddenly felt her blood run cold as she saw Jake hang up a poster on the wall for their team.

Jake was the team’s quarterback this season which Gaz couldn’t help but scoff at. Of course he was! They made eye contact for a moment, but Jake looked away quickly when he was playfully punched in the arm by another teammate. Gaz watched as Jake and his friends began running down the crowded halls, aggressively raising school spirit. 

Gaz felt her stomach do flips when she saw Zim round the corner. He was wearing a jersey and black face paint lines on his cheeks. He also sported a huge grin on his face as his teammates messed with his ‘hair’ and put him in a playful headlock as they raced down the hallway.

Gaz was a little surprised to see Zim interacting with other people besides Dib and herself considering how much he despised humans. She also couldn’t help but feel a little… dare she say, _attracted_ by Zim’s appearance. The face paint, the jersey, the adorable grin on his face was almost too much for Gaz to handle. He was like a different person in that moment. _I need to get more sleep… this is crazy._

As Zim passed Gaz with his enthusiastic teammates, their eyes met for a split second. Gaz felt her face heat up as she remembered the night they shared on the sidewalk where she told him her deepest secrets. She didn’t regret it persay, but she had definitely analyzed the situation thousands of times in her head and felt like she may have scared him off. Zim and her hadn’t spoken since it happened. Gaz hoped it wasn’t because of what she told him. Exposing so much of her feelings to someone who didn’t even consider her a close friend was risky, but Gaz really needed to get those emotions off her chest and didn’t feel like breaking down in front of Dib.

The rest of the day went by and Gaz eventually found herself at home, too excited to do her homework. She hadn’t ever gone to a football game before since she never really saw the point of it. Sitting outside in the cold with strangers screaming at cocky assholes on a field to tackle each other didn’t exactly sound pleasant to Gaz, but now that she knew someone on the team besides Jake, it seemed more appealing. Dib had also agreed to go with her to make sure that Zim joining the football team wasn’t just part of his ‘evil plan’. 

“I’m telling you, Gaz, if I’m not there and he’s secretly up to something, humanity could be doomed!” Dib announced annoyingly.

“Whatever Dib.” Gaz responded, playing her Game Slave despite the nervous jitters going through her body. Why was she so excited to go see a stupid football game? As she thought about this, Zim’s smile from that morning flashed in Gaz’s mind, causing her heart to skip a beat and the Vampire Piggy Slayer to get killed. “Damnit!” Gaz cursed, restarting the level. _This is getting ridiculous. It’s Zim! Get it together Gaz!_

Meanwhile, Dib ran up the stairs to his room to prepare for whatever Zim was planning.

“This time I’m ready, Zim. You may think you have everyone fooled by joining the team, but not me! I can see right through your silly front and it’s not going to keep me from exposing you to the world… or maybe just to the school…” Dib monologued as he grabbed various recording equipment and shoved them in his backpack.

“You must think you’re _so_ clever blending into the Skool now that you have teammates, but what you don’t realize is that football is a high-contact sport. Your disguise is going to come off and then they’ll see, they’ll all see!” Dib said to a badly drawn picture of Zim he had on his wall before laughing maniacally.

“Dib, you better not be monologuing to yourself!” Gaz yelled up, causing Dib to stop laughing.

“Of course not, Gaz! Just practicing lines for the Spring play.” Dib lied.

“Since when are you in the Spring play? You’re terrible at acting!”

“Mind your own business!” Dib called before racing towards the door, backpack filled with all kinds of gadgets. Gaz sighed and followed him to the car.

On the ride over to the game, Gaz began getting lost in thought. She had spent countless hours over the week thinking about how she felt about Zim, but she kept coming to an answer she didn’t like. Zim was her brother’s _arch nemesis_ and one of the main causes of her headaches as a child! Gaz was also still scared of getting hurt. Jake had broken her and she wasn’t sure how long it would be before she began trusting men again. There was no way Zim could change her mind about something like that. Granted, Zim was an alien and seemed pretty clueless about human relationships, but for all she knew Irkens could be as cold and unfeeling as Jake was. 

Zim didn’t seem to express much emotion when Gaz cried in front of him. He even said that Irkens didn’t even mate or date like humans do, so would he even reciprocate or understand romantic feelings for him? _Not that she had feelings! She just meant in general!_

The pair arrived at the packed parking lot where hoards of kids congregated, drinking vodka in water bottles or messing around and trashing the lot. Dib and Gaz stepped out of the car and headed over to the field where bleachers were packed with kids from both their Hi Skool and the opposing team’s skool. 

“Holy shit! This is the perfect place for Zim to unleash whatever his evil plan is. I’ll catch up to you later Gaz, I have an alien to stop!” Dib exclaimed before running to find a hiding spot near the field. Gaz watched him leave boredly before turning her attention back to the stands. As she began looking for a spot in the bleachers she noticed Keef standing around, talking to a bunch of people. Gaz felt her jaw clench in anticipation. She hated social situations where she didn’t know anyone and knew that if she didn’t approach Keef she’d have no one to sit next to. 

Gaz swallowed her pride and sulked over to Keef and his popular friends who Gaz couldn’t help but be intimidated by. All of the girls were super pretty and the guys that weren’t already on the football team weren’t bad looking either. 

“...and that’s why I don’t think he’ll be ready to play in the first quarter...” Keef said to his friends before Gaz lightly tapped his shoulder. “Oh, hey Gaz, what’s up! Guys, this is my new friend Gaz!”

“Hey.” Gaz said awkwardly.

“I think I may have seen you around. You’re related to Dib right?” One of the pretty girls asked. Gaz recognized her from the party, remembering how Dib had spotted her as soon as they got there and had basically ditched Gaz the whole night to impress her.

“Unfortunately.” Gaz responded, getting a chuckle from her audience.

“Oh my god! _That’s_ where I know you from! You were the girl Jake and that weird kid had a fight over!” The girl exclaimed. Suddenly everyone began talking excitedly to each other.

“Wait what fight?” One of the boys asked.

“You know, at Keef’s party? Jake like _grabbed_ her and then he got into a fight with… what was his name?” Another girl added, forgetting Zim’s name.

“Zim.” Gaz replied. 

“Who?” Another boy asked.

“Oh wait, is he the new running back? He’s the green kid right?”

“I think so. I’ve literally never talked to him before. Are you friends with him or something?” The pretty girl asked Gaz.

“N-No! We just have science together.” 

“Wait, if you’re not friends then why did he fight Jake?” A boy asked.

“Guys,” Keef cut in, “you don’t have to be friends with someone to save them from a shady situation. Jake could have easily taken advantage of her.”

“Pssh. Jake isn’t like that man.” One of the boys defended.

“You don’t know that.” Keef responded, placing his hand on the small of Gaz’s back to guide her away with him. “I’ll see you guys around.”

“Oh, Gaz was it? Say hi to Dib for me, we haven’t talked since the party!” The pretty girl called.

“Sure.” Gaz replied. Did her stupid brother actually have a chance with that girl?

“Do you want to sit with Trevor and I? He saved me a seat over there.” Keef pointed to a smiling boy a few rows up.

“Sure, thanks.” Gaz replied, following Keef up the metal stairs before squeezing past a bunch of people’s legs to get to Trevor. Trevor was a lean boy with platinum blonde dyed hair and glasses. He wore a navy hoodie and dark jeans. He smiled at the two of them as Keef and Gaz approached him.

“Hey babe, this is my friend Gaz.” Keef introduced, giving Trevor a light peck on the forehead.

“Hey, I’m Trevor.” He greeted, shaking Gaz’s hand. Gaz smiled and sat down next to Keef. “So how do you two know each other?”

“We have art together.” Gaz replied, putting her elbows on her knees to lean forward enough to see him.

“Oh, cool. I suck at art.”

“No you don’t.” Keef retorted, punching Trevor lightly on the arm.

“Yes, I do! Have you seen my art from last year? It’s disgusting.” 

“I suck at art too.” Gaz added, resulting in a smile from Trevor.

“Oh, I heard Jake’s the Quarterback this season.” Keef suddenly said, turning to Gaz.

“I know.” Gaz replied, feeling her blood boil at just the sound of his name.

“You know Jake?” Trevor asked, looking over at Gaz.

“Yeah…”

“He came to my party and started messing with her. Ended up getting beat up by that green kid Zim.” Keef explained to Trevor.

“Wait, Zim _beat up_ Jake?” Gaz asked, slightly surprised. She figured no one actually _won_ the fight.

“Yeah. Jake still tries to act like the fight was over because the cops showed up, but I swear if they hadn’t gotten called Zim would have killed him.” Keef replied, causing Gaz’s eyes to widen and her heart to flutter. Images of Zim beating up Jake flashed in her head. 

“Do I know Zim?” Trevor asked.

“I’m not sure. He’s green, kinda tall, yells a lot.” Keef described, causing Gaz to smirk. “He’s playing tonight so you’ll see him.”

“Okay, cool.” 

A few more minutes went by before the announcements began. Gaz tried to look for Dib among the crowd but failed. She still couldn't believe that pretty girl she was talking to was actually interested in Dib. It was a joke right? Then again, Dib had mellowed out since losing interest in Zim, so maybe the girl just hadn’t known him during his alien-hunting craze.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first game of the season!” The principal of their Skool announced, standing in the middle of the field with a microphone and a clip-board. 

The crowd went wild, clapping and cheering. Gaz clapped too as a mixture of anxiousness and nervousness surged through her. She was excited to see Zim in action, but was also dreading seeing Jake. It was an odd feeling. 

After announcements concluded, which consisted of various shoutouts to clubs and events, a girl came to the center of the field to sing the National Anthem. Gaz could tell she thought she was the best singer ever as she tried to do riffs, ruining the song. Keef and Trevor stifled their laughter as Gaz smirked at the off-key song.

Once the song concluded, an announcer from the booth where the score was being kept began introducing the players. Gaz’s heart quickened in anticipation.

“And now to introduce this season’s Squirrels! Starting with number five, Torque Smackey!” The announcer called, as Torque ran onto the field. A wave of cheers came from the stands. Gaz remembered Torque as the middle-school bully/ athletic kid who was constantly pumping weights during lunch.

“He used to be the quarterback, but I heard Jake beat him for the spot this year at tryouts.” Keef suddenly explained to Gaz.

“Oh shit. He must hate him.” Gaz replied.

“I heard there’s a lot of bad blood on the team this year.” Trevor added as the announcer continued to call out names of players. Gaz’s ears didn’t perk up until she heard a familiar name.

“...number forty-two, Zim!” The announcer called. Gaz’s heart skipped a beat as she saw Zim run onto the field wearing the team’s uniform and a helmet. She had never been more attracted to the alien than in that moment. Any doubt she had about her feelings before had been thrown out the window. _Fuck it. I’m done denying it._ His toned biceps could be seen as he ran down the field to join the teammates whose names had already been called. 

Gaz couldn’t take her eyes off him as she watched Zim high five a few people in the stands before running over to the rest of his teammates, laughing and talking to them. Gaz had never seen him interact so normally before. If she didn’t already know he was an alien, Gaz could have actually _believed_ he was human. Dib probably noticed this too as she caught him popping up from behind one of the bleachers with his jaw dropped. He began zooming in on Zim with one of his cameras before taking vigorous notes on a notepad. 

“And finally number fifteen, your new quarterback, Jake Ryan!” The announcer suddenly called, snapping Gaz’s attention to the evil boy who ran across the field, waving to everyone cockily. Everyone began cheering except for Gaz, Keef, and Trevor. Keef suddenly turned to Gaz and smirked, confusing her, before he began booing loudly. Gaz laughed as Trevor joined in. Everyone around looked at them with confused or angry looks. Gaz shrugged and joined the couple, booing as loudly as she could. It felt good.

Jake seemed to have heard them booing as he scanned the bleachers in confusion for the source, but failed to spot Gaz. After the announcements were done, Gaz, Keef, and Trevor all high-fived despite the angry students around them.

“Ha! Everyone hates us right now.” Trevor said, making eye contact with a girl in front of him who sent him a death glare.

“Who cares, he deserved it.” Keef responded cockily. Gaz nodded in approval.

Finally, the Squirrels faced off against their opposing team in a lineup. As soon as the teams got into formation, Trevor turned to Keef.

“Oh shit! He’s the runningback?!” Trevor exclaimed, pointing to Zim. 

“Wait, runningback is like a really good position right?” Gaz asked. She had played football video games before, but it had been such a long time.

“Yeah. If they’re good, runningbacks usually make a lot of touchdowns.” 

“Oh man, that must fucking suck though.” Trevor stated, sitting on the edge of his seat.

“What? Why?” Gaz asked with a raised eyebrow

“Well the success of the team is reliant on how good the quarterback is and if the quarterback has beef with the runningback… this is going to be an interesting game, that’s for sure.” Trevor replied. Gaz knew what he meant and felt her nerves act up again. She was already worried about what would happen with Jake and Zim working together on the same team, but with their positions being so close together it made her all the more tense.

The game finally began and Gaz watched intently as Jake threw the ball to teammates, while avoiding Zim over and over. Keef and Trevor began yelling at Jake since a lot of the plays cost them the ball and didn’t advance them much further toward the end zone. Gaz could tell Zim was starting to get pissed off by this. When their team called a timeout, Zim began talking to Jake and it looked tense.

“Oh man, it’s starting to get heated.” Trever commented, noticing how serious Zim looked when he was talking to Jake. Gaz watched the interaction as Jake defensively raised his arms up and tried walking away but Zim suddenly grabbed his shoulder. Jake ripped it off and started yelling, but when their coach ran up to them, they calmed down and joined their teammates in a huddle.

“I wonder what happened.” Keef asked, resting his chin on his hands. Gaz also wondered what was said and whether or not another fight would break out at some point. 

The game started back up again and the Tigers had the ball. The game progressed until the Tigers finally got a touchdown. The opposing crowd cheered while everyone else remained silent. The Squirrels looked pissed off, especially since there were so many turnovers caused by Jake because he still hadn’t given the ball to Zim once. 

Gaz noticed that a few of Zim’s teammates began saying things to Jake before the kickoff. As the ball flew through the air, Gaz watched in shock as Zim caught it and quickly sprinted across the field, getting a pretty good distance before being tackled by the defense. The crowd cheered.

Squirrels still had possession and had thirty yards to go. Jake continued to ignore Zim, passing the ball to other teammates which resulted in a turnover. Tigers got possession of the ball again, but fumbled which caused another turnover. Gaz was getting stressed-out just watching. 

“When is Jake going to use his running back? Zim’s been left wide open so many times because the Tigers know he’s not going to get passed to!” Keef pointed out angrily. “He’s going to cost us the game!” The Squirrels had possession of the ball again at the forty yard line.

Before the play began, Zim said something to Jake that seemed to make his blood boil. Regardless, Jake called out the play and got possession of the ball before Zim purposely bumped into him, causing him to fumble as Zim swooped in and caught the ball. He took off sprinting, swiftly dodging the Tigers defenders as his teammates did their best to clear a path for him. The crowd began screaming as Zim got close to the end-zone, leaping over a defender who tried grabbing his legs. Zim regained balance and made it into the end-zone, making the crowd go crazy.

“Victory for Zim!” Gaz could barely hear Zim yell as he did a fist pump in the air. All of his teammates rushed over and began celebrating with him. Gaz could hardly believe it. She had no idea Zim was so fast. 

“Holy shit, he’s actually pretty good!” Trevor remarked, clapping.

“Did you see what he did though? That was crazy, he basically messed up Jake just to get that touchdown.” Keef added.

As if on cue, Jake slowly made his way through the crowd of teammates who were hugging Zim, and pushed everyone aside. Suddenly he pushed Zim roughly in the chest, knocking him to the ground. The crowd gasped and cheered in excitement. 

“Oh shit! It’s happening!” Keef exclaimed, grabbing onto Gaz’s arm. Gaz watched in horror as a full on fight broke out on the field. Other players tried ripping Jake away from Zim as he began yelling profanities at him. Suddenly Torque shoved Jake and began yelling at him before Jake kneed him in the stomach. The coaches began trying to intervene, pulling kids away from each other before Zim got on his feet and began yelling something at Jake. Jake ripped away from his teammates and shoved Zim again who countered by shoving him back harder. 

“Oh my god, this is awesome.” Trevor said as everyone around them began screaming and encouraging the fight to continue. Both boys had removed their helmets at this point as their teammates tried and failed to hold them back without getting into the fight themselves.

Jake threw the first punch, knocking Zim to the ground, but he recovered quickly and threw a punch back, breaking Jake’s nose. Blood gushed down his face as he screamed in pain, holding his nose. Zim was held back before he could throw another punch, but this gave Jake the opportunity to knee Zim in the stomach before uppercutting him, popping out one of his contacts and exposing one of his ruby-red eyes to the entire skool. Zim growled in anger, covering his eye, before they were finally detained by their teammates and coaches. The referees kicked both of them out of the game for roughhousing and allowed Torque to take over as quarterback. Gaz was shocked by what just went down and saw that Dib was also shocked based on how many photos he was taking of the incident. 

When halftime was called, Gaz, Keef and Trevor got food and hung out in the parking lot, discussing how crazy the game was. Dib eventually made his way over to Gaz, beaming,

“Gaz! Did you see that? That fight was definitely part of Zim’s plan! I’m going to get him this time. I got footage of his contact getting knocked out! Irrefutable evidence!” Dib exclaimed, holding up his camera in triumph before a bird flew down and grabbed it from his hands. “What the hell! Damnit!”

“So anyways, Gaz do you think that fight had something to do with the party? Or was it just about Jake not giving Zim any playing time?” Trevor asked, taking a bite of a taco he’d bought from a nearby food truck. 

“I dunno, probably both.” Gaz replied, trying to sound uninterested. Truthfully, as much as she hated seeing Jake, she had actually been really turned on by the whole fight... Seeing Zim acting so dominant and aggressive was like seeing another side of him that Gaz had never seen before. As she thought of this she suddenly remembered something.

“Hey Dib, I talked to that girl you ditched me for at Keef’s party.” Gaz stated.

“Oh, Amelia?” Dib asked.

“I don’t care what her name is. She told me to say hi to you for her.”

“Wait, really?” Dib asked, smiling. Gaz shrugged before following Keef and Trevor back onto the field to watch the second half of the game. 

“I’m gonna head home, Gaz. I need to see if I can recover some of the footage from my memory drive. Can you get a ride?” Dib asked.

“I can drive her!” Keef replied. Gaz smiled at him in thanks.

“Okay thanks!” Dib called, still beaming from what Gaz had told him. He couldn’t believe Amelia actually said that to Gaz! There was no way he had a chance with her, right? Dib began speculating this as he got into his car and drove back to their house. 

The Tigers ended up winning since the Squirrels were at such a disadvantage with the new arrangements now that Jake and Zim had been kicked out. Gaz glanced at the two boys who were both seated on chairs watching the game from the sidelines. Jake’s nose was being patched up by a medic and Zim held an ice pack to his cheek. 

Keef and Trevor stood up to leave and Gaz followed as they all moved slowly down the bleachers, following the flow of the crowd. Everyone around them seemed to be in a sour mood from the loss. 

Once the trio got to the parking lot, Keef and Trevor left to find the bathroom. Gaz waited for them near the fence that overlooked the field. A chill wind blew past, causing Gaz to shiver and rub her arms to keep warm. She lazily watched as teenagers got into their cars and drove home or hung around and smoked. 

“You boys are on thin ice. I’d cut you from the team if we didn’t have such a hard time finding players.” Someone suddenly yelled from behind. Gaz turned around and looked through the chain-link fence to see Zim and Jake who had both changed out of their uniforms being scolded by their coach in front of the rest of the team. “On Monday you boys will have detention and I expect written apologies to the principal. Am I making myself clear?” Zim and Jake nodded and apologized before the team got into a huddle. Gaz couldn’t hear what else was said until the huddle broke and everyone went their separate ways.

Jake turned on his heel and walked back towards the field to the other side of the parking lot while Zim and everyone else went towards the exit where Gaz was. Gaz quickly turned away so no one saw she was staring and kicked the rocks beneath her feet. All of the players filed out into the parking lot and got into their cars. Gaz continued boredly kicking before a familiar voice broke the silence.

“Oh, hey.” Zim said, sounding a little surprised to see her. Gaz looked up to see that Zim had both of his contacts in. His wig was messy and the black face paint streaks were smeared on his cheeks as he held an ice pack to one of them.

“Hey.” Gaz replied awkwardly.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come.”

“Why?” Gaz asked, her voice carrying a small amount of danger. Zim shrugged. An awkward silence arose before Gaz broke it. “You were good out there.”

“Eh?”

“I didn’t know you could do that sort of thing.”

“Ah, yes, well Zim is amazing at all things so you need not be surprised, human.” Zim gloated, acting like his normal self again despite his disheveled appearance.

“Like seriously, you were… amazing out there…” Gaz complimented, finding herself blushing. Zim noticed this and laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

“Of course I was… Zim makes all things amazing little-Gaz.” Zim smiled, exposing his zipper-like teeth. Gaz felt her heart race at the sound of him calling her by that pet name.

“What happened out there anyways?” Gaz asked, trying to change the subject. Zim’s eyes narrowed for a moment before his fist clenched suddenly.

“That- that _filthy_ _disgusting-_ ugh! I hate him!” Zim growled, kicking the fence. “How dare he challenge Zim! I’m a better player than he’ll ever be. Without me we never would have gotten that touchdown and he knew it!”

“I hate him too.” Gaz replied thinking about Jake’s stupid head.

“Yes, I know you do. I know.” Zim replied softly, calming down, looking at Gaz with a concerned expression. “About that night-”

“Save it, Zim.” Gaz interrupted, “I was just tired and I don’t even remember what I said or did so there’s no point in talking about it.”

“Gaz.” Zim suddenly said, startling Gaz by just using her first name. “I need to talk to you about something,”

“What?” Gaz sighed, dreading what was coming next.

“I have been doing some research about human relationships and I realized that I didn’t react the way I should have when you told me about your courtship troubles.”

“Zim, you really don’t need to-”

“Silence human! You will listen to Zim now! I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for what Jake did to you. It wasn’t your fault and he’s the reason why I want to _destroy_ humans in the first place. I don’t remember everything you told me, but it was enough to make me hate him more than I already do.” Zim continued. Gaz nodded quietly in response.

“Another thing Zim wanted to ask is-”

“Hey, Gaz!” Keef suddenly called, interrupting Zim. Gaz glared and looked over at Keef.

“What?”

“Do you need a ride home? Trevor and I are leaving.”

“No orange-human, Zim will be giving Gaz the ride home!” Zim called over. Keef, while weirded out by Zim’s nickname for him, gave Gaz a thumbs up before getting in his car and driving off with Trevor.

“Anyways, I was going to ask what that… what’s that word... kiss! That kiss on the cheek meant because according to your earth websites, a kiss is a sign of romantic affection for humans.” Zim stated. Gaz was mortified. Her eyes widened in horror at what Zim had asked.

“You… want to know… what?”

“Before I flew home you kissed Zim on the cheek.”

“I- you must be imagining things. That never happened.”

“Eh? You mean you didn’t do _this_ to Zim?” Zim suddenly leaned down and gave Gaz a peck on the cheek, causing Gaz’s face to flush.

“Zim! What the hell!” Gaz covered her cheeks with her hands to try hiding her embarrassment.

“I was simply giving a demonstration. Perhaps your earthling brain couldn’t comprehend what I just did. I’ll show you again-”

“Stop Zim! Okay. Maybe I did kiss you but it didn’t mean anything! I was just tired and got all emotional or something.” Gaz said defensively, feeling anger rise up in her chest. Zim sighed.

“Err… do you still need a ride? I’m using a hoverpad since you have my ship.” Zim offered cautiously, afraid to set Gaz off. Gaz stared at the ground for a moment, weighing her options, then nodded and followed him to the sidewalk. Zim suddenly pulled a remote out from his pocket and clicked a button which unfolded the remote into the pad. Gaz quietly got on behind Zim and wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m planning on using your ship this weekend, by the way. I just need to figure out where I want to go.” Gaz said suddenly as the hoverpad took off.

“Can I give you some suggestions?” Zim asked.

“Sure.”

“There’s a planet not far from Earth that throws really fun parties.”

“Huh, I didn’t know you liked parties so much.” Gaz remarked which caused Zim to chuckle.

“There’s much you don’t know about me, human.”

The pair flew in silence. Gaz sighed, “I…” Gaz hesitated, deciding whether or not to say what was on her mind.

“What is it?”

“Do you want to come with me?” Gaz squeezed her eyes shut, afraid of what he would say in response. Zim was silent for a moment causing Gaz’s heart to accelerate. “I hate going to parties alone.”

“Only if you beg...” Zim said in a teasing voice.

“I hate you.”

“That doesn’t sound like begging little-Gaz.”

“Just forget it then. I’ll find someone else to go with me.”

“I mean yes! Zim will accompany you to this party adventure you speak of! ...But only because I miss my ship.” Zim added quickly. Gaz rolled her eyes.

As the pair flew to Gaz’s house, Gaz began to wonder what going to a party with Zim meant. Did it mean anything? As long as she didn’t admit her feelings for him she wouldn’t get hurt. Besides, he said he was only going with her because of his ship so clearly he didn’t feel anything towards her. This was good. _People can kiss each other on the cheeks and go to intergalactic parties together as friends_ , Gaz thought. 

The pair finally arrived in front of Gaz’s house and she hopped off. 

“Thanks for the ride.” Gaz said quietly, staring at the ground.

“I’ll see you Saturday night?” Zim asked, also avoiding eye contact.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

  
“Okay...” Zim trailed off, unsure what to do. Gaz was unsure too, but decisively turned and went into her house, looking back over her shoulder at the green alien who sent her a smirk. Gaz flipped him off before closing her door, already excited about what Saturday night would bring.


	6. The Rave

Gaz sat in the living room playing her GameSlave in silence. She had already gotten ready for going out with Zim, wearing ripped jeans and a purple off the shoulder crop top. Gaz had also done her makeup more intensely since she wasn’t sure how nice the party was going to be. 

As Gaz played her game, her hands began to feel sweaty and her knee began bouncing anxiously. _It’s not a date. It’s not a date. It’s not a date. Right?_ Gaz thought to herself as she vigorously smashed buttons. 

“Hey, Gaz.” Dib greeted, causing Gaz to jump in surprise and lose the level.

“Ah! Fuck, Dib! Now I have to start all over!” Gaz yelled, glaring up at her annoying brother.

“Wait, why are you dressed like that?” Dib asked, eyeing Gaz’s outfit.

“What are you talking about? Am I not allowed to wear this?”

“You’re dressed like you’re going to a party. Is Keef throwing one tonight or something?” Dib asked. Gaz looked around anxiously before nodding.

“Yup. That’s exactly it. Now leave me alone.”

“Well, do you mind if I tag along? It might be an opportunity for me to talk to Amelia again.” Dib’s eyes sparkled as he said this. 

“Er… um… no because… it’s a kickback. Only specific people are invited so you can’t go.”

“Well, I’m your brother and Keef knows me, so I feel like it wouldn’t be that weird for me to come.”

“Well wouldn’t it be rude to go to a party you weren’t invited to, Dib? Do you want to be rude? Didn’t dad teach us that being rude is wrong? Are you trying to disappoint dad, Dib? Huh?” Gaz asked threateningly, her tone growing louder as she spoke.

“Um… no?”

“Good, now kindly fuck off so I can play my game in peace.” Gaz growled, starting up her game again. Dib sighed and sulked back to his room. Gaz breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that if he found out where she was really going, Dib would have a heart attack. As she thought of this, Gaz suddenly had a realization. If Zim rings the doorbell, Dib would discover the truth!

Gaz got up and ran over to the door. As she swung it open, she suddenly found herself inches away from the familiar green alien. They both froze in terror. Gaz couldn’t even see Zim’s full face due to how close they were in proximity. 

“Uh… didn’t even ring the doorbell yet.” Zim awkwardly pointed out. Gaz could feel his warm breath on her face as he spoke. Gaz suddenly backed away, a small blush forming on her cheeks from their closeness. As she backed up, Zim began eyeing her up and down, admiring her figure. Gaz subtly checked Zim out too. He was wearing his disguise, but wore a simple black t-shirt and grey jeans. Gaz and Zim suddenly made eye contact causing the pair to chuckle awkwardly.

“Your clothing looks-” Zim started.

“You also look-” Gaz interrupted before stopping herself, “I um… we should go.” Gaz said quickly, leading a now confused Zim to her backyard where the ship was being kept. She approached the camouflaged ship and pressed a keypad on the windshield to uncloak it. Gaz then opened the glass windshield for the pair to step inside. Zim climbed in first to sit on the passenger side, much to Gaz’s surprise.

“Wait, you’re actually going to let me fly it?” Gaz asked, starting up the ship.

“Eh?” Zim’s attention snapped. 

“Well usually, you’re all like, _you could never be a better pilot than someone as amazing as me!_ Or something.” Gaz remarked, doing an overexaggerated Zim impression.

“You dare mimic Zim? I sound nothing like that! Besides, I’m clearly testing you and your flying abilities.” Zim replied stubbornly.

“Zim, you and I both know I’m a better pilot than you.”

“Lies! Besides, Gir forced me to watch three hours of that terrible Floopsy show so now I’m too tired to fly.” Zim dismissed, waving his hand in the air casually. Gaz knew he was lying and smirked, causing the alien to raise an eyebrow before the ship took off, shooting the two into space.

Once outside of Earth's orbit, Gaz turned to Zim, “We can’t get there if I don’t know where we’re going.”

“Oh, so now you need Zim’s help? I thought you were a better pilot than me.” Zim teased, taking off his disguise to reveal his ruby-red eyes and antenna. Gaz glared at him. Zim sighed, “Very well. I will direct you. If you press that screen over there it should pull up a map.”

Gaz pressed on the screen and sure enough a 3D map displaying thousands of planets appeared in front of them. Gaz’s eyes sparkled in awe as she pressed her finger to each planet, which pulled up a directory of the planet’s name, atmosphere levels, and other various bits of information. Zim casually scooted closer to Gaz, surprising her when his arm reached around her to type something in Irken into the monitor. Gaz still couldn’t read Zim’s language, but assumed it was for the planet they were flying to. 

Sure enough, an arrow appeared on the map, guiding Gaz to their destination. Using the warp-speed button, Gaz launched the ship forward getting them there quickly. Zim already knew she was a competent pilot, but was still impressed that she even knew how to do that. 

“You can land the ship anywhere.” Zim mentioned as their ship approached the newfound planet. Gaz lowered the ship onto the planet’s surface which looked like an enormous neon city. The buildings and streets were dark, but flashes of purple, blue, and green light escaped the windows. Gaz could also feel a deep bass that seemed to originate from the planet’s core. 

“Is this planet… like one giant club?”

“You could call it that.” Zim replied, hopping out of the ship after Gaz. 

“So how did you find this place?” 

“I came here once with an old friend. Apparently all of the parties are self contained so each building is something different.” Zim explained as they walked down a dark street where various aliens roamed to find the next party. Suddenly, a drunk alien couple dressed in neon clothing stumbled out of a nearby building, bumping into Gaz.

“Hey, watch it!” Zim warned, moving them off of Gaz who nearly fell under their weight. 

“Eyyyy! You’re… Irken. Look honey, it’s a Irk-ennn.” One of the aliens slurred, pointing haphazardly at Zim who looked confused.

“Oh, yeah. You blew up our planet! Boom!” The other alien replied, sounding just as fucked up as she made explosion noises.

“Hey pal, I hope your planet gets destroyed too. Then you’ll see *hick* what it’s like to- to…” The drunk alien trailed off before violently vomiting onto the street. Zim and Gaz exchanged uncomfortable looks before hurrying away. 

“What was that all about? You blew up their planet?” Gaz asked, concerned.

“Of course not, they were just confused. Their planet was probably in the way of the Irken Armada.”

“Oh, cool.” Gaz replied, losing interest. Her response seemed to surprise Zim.

“I keep forgetting you are nothing like Dib.” Zim remarked, remembering how Gaz didn’t give two shits about global domination of any kind.

“Yeah. His obsession with saving Earth gets _really_ old sometimes.”

“It’s like his life serves no other purpose. Maybe it’s because of that unnaturally large head of his.”

“Pfft! Oh yeah! Definitely. I’ve always wondered if it would give him superpowers or like make him really smart or something, but no.”

“Ha! Imagine Dib being smart!” Zim laughed. Gaz joined him, wiping tears from the sides of her eyes. After a moment of laughter, the pair found themselves in front of a stairwell that most-likely led to an underground party. Leaning on the railing was a bouncer who was watching them intently.

“No Irkens allowed.” The bouncer suddenly said, blocking Zim from entry after Gaz made her way down the stairs.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Zim demanded angrily.

“You heard me. We don’t want your _kind_ here. Hell, your kind isn’t welcome to any party on this planet. Leave now before you get your ass kicked.”

“How dare you threaten Zim! You’re so full of _shit_. Irkens have always been welcome here!” Zim seethed. Gaz climbed up the stairs and stood next to Zim, sending the bouncer a look that could scare a ghost.

“What’s the problem?” Gaz asked dangerously, sending chills down the bouncer’s spine.

“I- uh- look, I’m just explaining to your friend here that ever since the Irken Armada broke the peace treaty with our quadrant, Ikens are no longer welcome here. Look, I’m doing you guys a favor, if someone else had caught you, you’d be killed.” The bouncer explained.

“Well what if he wore a disguise?” Gaz asked, causing both the bouncer and Zim to look confused.

“Gaz, what-”

“Shh!” Gaz shushed Zim, waiting for the bouncer to answer.

“I mean, I guess. But it better be pretty convincing because we bouncers are incredibly skilled at pointing out the enemy.” 

Gaz turned to Zim and pointed at her eyes and hair. Zim stared at her in confusion for a long moment before Gaz sighed.

“Your human disguise Zim. Jesus!”

“Oh!” Zim quickly turned around to put on his contacts and wig before facing the bouncer again, smiling nervously. The bouncer stared at him in silence for a moment before stroking his chin in thought.

“Wait, where’d your Irken friend go?” He asked. Gaz thought he was being sarcastic.

“It’s me!” Zim exclaimed, pulling out one of his contacts.

“Oh my god! Holy shit! That’s really you?! What an incredible disguise! You could probably get into any party here with that on.” The bouncer said in amazement. Gaz, realizing the bouncer was being serious, slapped her forehead. _Is everyone in the universe an idiot?_

“Excellent, shall we go in, Gaz?” Zim asked, popping in his contact and holding out his arm for her to take. Gaz rolled her eyes and walked past Zim, going down the stairs to the party on her own. She needed to maintain some boundaries with him if she wanted to keep this non-date... a non-date. 

The pair entered the party and were immediately greeted by loud music and sweaty alien bodies dancing to the beat of the song playing. As they pushed their way in, Gaz instinctively found herself grabbing onto Zim’s hand as she led them through the crowd to the center of the dance floor. Zim didn’t seem to mind as he found himself clutching onto her when a hoard of aliens almost separated them. Once they found a good spot, the pair stared at each other, unsure what to do next. 

Suddenly a really good EDM song came on and people began pushing into Gaz and Zim who were thrust together in a matter of seconds. Gaz felt embarrassed for a moment, but that feeling immediately went away when she looked up at Zim who was focused on something above the crowd, bobbing his head to the music. 

“All of the DJ’s are robots!” Zim yelled down to Gaz.

“Cool!” She yelled back before wondering if the robots looked anything like Gir. She craned her neck to see, but was much shorter than most of the aliens there.

“Here.” Zim said, noticing Gaz was struggling to see. He had crouched down which confused Gaz, “Get on my shoulders.” He instructed. Gaz hesitated, but shrugged and, with the help of Zim, climbed up. Now she could see the whole room. Gaz could also see that she wasn’t the only person on someone else’s shoulders.

“Hi!” yelled a female alien who was on the shoulders of someone nearby. Gaz gave an awkward wave before focusing on the DJ stand which was manned by a robot that looked slightly like Gir, but had neon lights displayed all over its body. It was also much taller than Gir and had six arms which allowed it to create way more interesting sounds with the mixer. Gaz felt a smile grow on her face. This was the coolest thing she had ever seen. The room they were in was enormous and filled with flashing lights, smoke, and aliens dressed in crazy outfits. It felt like a rave from Earth on steroids. 

After a few minutes of admiration, Gaz felt the urge to start dancing, so she tapped on Zim’s forehead, signaling for him to put her down. He obliged and lowered her to the ground. Almost instantly Gaz began moving her body to the music. Zim did the same, but found himself glancing every now and then down at Gaz who looked stunning under all of the colorful lighting. 

As Gaz danced, she suddenly felt someone tug at her waist, pushing themselves against her to start grinding. Her heart skipped a beat when she thought it was Zim, but realized Zim was a few feet away, still focused on the DJ. Gaz turned her head slightly to see an alien boy behind her. She quickly ripped herself away to face the alien. He was pretty attractive and oddly similar looking to a human. The alien smirked as he saw Gaz’s face, exposing a set of razor sharp teeth.

“First time?” He asked, leaning forward next to her ear so she could hear him.

“Excuse me?” She asked angrily, unsure what he meant by that?

“First time dancing with somebody.” He clarified. Gaz shook her head.

“Of course not. I’m not _twelve_.” 

“Then what’s wrong?” He asked. Gaz could feel his smirk against her cheek, sending a chill down her spine.

“I just thought you were someone else. That’s all.” Gaz replied.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like _you_ around here before. What are you?”

“Human.” Gaz replied bluntly.

“Ooh. Never heard of it. I like it though, are all humans this… voluptuous?” The alien asked hungrily, taking a set back to eye her up and down.

“Um…”

“I’m Jati.” He said suddenly.

“Gaz.”

“Can I get you a drink?” He asked, causing Gaz to perk up. 

“Um… sure.” She knew she needed to loosen up a little, but was definitely going to be more careful this time around so as not to repeat what happened at Keef’s.

Jati led Gaz through the crowd to a modern looking bar with all kinds of strange glowing liquids in glass bottles.

“Two _dexities_ please.” Jati said to a bartender who began making the foreign drink. Gaz wondered how alien alcohol compared to the kind on Earth. Was it stronger? 

“Here.” Jati said, handing Gaz a pink glowing drink. She took a small sip, curious of the flavor. It was sweet and a little sour, almost like tasting liquified candy. Gaz downed it in one gulp, ignoring the overly sweet flavor and hoping it would be enough to loosen her up. Almost instantly, Gaz felt it kick in. Her body felt heavier and her vision became slower. It felt good. 

Jati tapped on her shoulder, having also finished his drink, before grabbing Gaz’s hand and leading her back into the crowd.

“Can we continue?” He asked in a seductive tone, spinning her around to grab her hips before waiting for her response. Gaz felt her breathing increase as she tried to suppress any fear she had about the situation. 

They grinded for a while, Jati leading as he helped guide her hips in a circular motion as his groin rubbed against her. Gaz felt him push her down so she was leaning towards the ground while her ass was pressed against him. It looked like a sex position and Gaz wasn’t nearly drunk enough to be comfortable with that. She resisted his grip and stood back up, but still was faced away from him. 

Jati took this as an invitation to continue as she felt his hands snake up her stomach. One hand grabbed her breast and curiously massaged it while the other pushed back her hair so he could kiss her neck from behind. Gaz gasped and yanked away to face a cocky alien who thought he was in the right.

“Don’t touch me.” Gaz said in a dark tone. 

“What we’re having fun aren’t we? Come on we’ve come this far, don’t stop now!” As Jati said this Gaz remembered that night with Jake. He said something very similar to her when she hesitated sleeping with him. Gaz was tired of quieting her own thoughts and feelings to make excuses for slimy assholes, like this guy, who just viewed her as an easy lay. Gaz wanted to dance and have fun on her own terms so why the hell was she giving this guy the time of day? As she realized this, she felt anger rise in her chest.

“What’s the problem? I bought you a drink didn’t I?” Jati continued to push, caressing her arm.

“You buying me a drink doesn’t mean I owe you shit.” Gaz remarked, spitting on the ground and causing Jati’s eyes to narrow.

“Oh really? Then why’d you come here alone? Don’t tell me you’re not just here for a good time.” 

“I didn’t come here alone. I came with my boyfriend.” Gaz found herself saying, hoping to scare this guy off. Internally, however, she was slapping herself for telling such an obvious lie.

“Bullshit. Why’d he let you dance with me then? He must be a shitty boyfriend if he’s not protecting his girl like he’s supposed to.” Jati implied, grabbing hold of Gaz’s waist again. She turned around, and without a moment of hesitation, slapped him before quickly disappearing into the crowd.

“Fucking slut.” Jati growled as he put a hand to his stinging cheek, watching Gaz leave before he suddenly caught a glimpse of her in the distance, embracing another alien. He eyed Gaz’s “boyfriend” for a moment as if trying to remember something before it came to him.

“Her boyfriend sure looks like an Irken…” Jati said to himself as he smirked. 

\---

Gaz had finally found Zim in the crowd and reached for him before being taken by a wave of bodies. 

“Where the hell did you go?” He asked before Gaz suddenly fell into him, catching him off guard. 

“Can we go somewhere else? I met a creep.” Her voice was muffled against his shirt. Zim could tell she was a little drunk and snickered.

“Ah you humans and your low tolerance to alcohol.” Zim teased, wrapping his arm around Gaz to guide her out of the party.

The rest of the night was a blur. Gaz and Zim went to a few different parties but made sure to stick together. At one point, Zim and Gaz did the alien equivalent of shots together which got Zim pretty tipsy. Meanwhile, Gaz had maintained a comfortable level of fucked-up. 

At this point in the night, any awkwardness Zim or Gaz felt toward each other had completely vanished. As one particularly upbeat song began playing, Gaz backed up into Zim and wrapped one of her hands behind his neck sensually while her other hand guided his hand down the side of her body down to grab her waist. 

Zim seemed confused, but was too drunk to care, so he went along with it until the pair were grinding to the song. After a while of movement, Zim seemed to catch on, taking control as he began putting his hands all over her. Gaz laughed at the physical sensations of having Zim feel her up, running his hand up her thighs and waist, but suddenly stopping before he reached her breasts. Gaz felt disappointed that he didn’t go further, but was also mildly surprised that he was still in control of himself. 

The pair continued to dance before Gaz noticed her feet started to hurt. She swiftly turned around to face Zim.

“My feet hurt, can we leave?” Gaz asked, slurring her words a tiny bit. Zim nodded and led her out of the venue to the streets again. 

“I wanna… I wanna play video *hick* video games with you Zim.” Gaz slurred as she held onto Zim’s arm for support. He was equally as fucked up, despite drinking way more than Gaz, but apparently Irkens have a very high alcohol tolerance.

“There’s an arcade I think.” Zim said in a normal sounding voice, trying to sober up. Gaz giggled at this.

“You’re drunk.” She laughed, poking Zim’s chest, “and muscley. How did you get so in shape anyways?” It was getting to that time in the night where Gaz would start getting very chatty and start saying or asking things she normally wouldn’t. She had once gone to Bloaty’s Pizza Hog while really fucked up and told the cashier that he was hot, but looked too much like a pigeon for her to date… it wasn’t a pleasant memory.

“Lots... and lots… of stretching.” Zim said before laughing at his own words.

“Stretching? What? No way!” Gaz said loudly, punching Zim in the arm before grabbing his hand and holding it up to her eyes in fascination. “You only have three fingers… why?”

“Why does anyone have any amount of fingers?” Zim asked rhetorically before leading Gaz down the street to the arcade.

“My feet hurt. Where are we going?” Gaz asked, slightly dragging her feet as they walked.

“To the arcade.” Zim replied.

“Oh, yay! I’m gonna destroy youuuuu.” Gaz teased before sighing, “Zim I dunno what was in that drink, but I feel really good right now. Is there… was there alcohol in those drinks? I mean like Earth alcohol.” Gaz suddenly laughed at what she said.

“I’ve never had Earth alcohol… I don’t think.” 

“Ah poop.” Gaz laughed.

The pair finally made it to the arcade and a drunk Zim held the door open for an equally drunk Gaz. Them being drunk while playing video games was a sight to see. Gaz was much worse at playing which made her bust up laughing every time she lost. Zim, on the other hand, was much more hand-eye coordinated, beating her at almost every game. 

“Fuck you Zim! I’m going to destroy you in the next round!” Gaz declared, flipping the Irken off. 

“We’ll see about that human!” Zim yelled back, laughing maniacally as his avatar killed Gaz’s in a matter of seconds. 

“Wow, I really suck at this game.” Gaz laughed. 

“Who knew you would be so bad at video games while drunk. You’re usually very skilled when it comes to flying and stuff.” Zim admitted, causing Gaz’s face to light up.

“You think I’m good at flying?”

“... yes.” Zim hesitantly said after realizing what he just admitted.

“Aw! Yay! I knew it!” Gaz cheered, jumping up and down and hugging Zim. Drunk Gaz was almost the polar opposite of sober Gaz.

Eventually the pair exhausted themselves out and leaned against a nearby wall where Zim proceeded drunkenly to vent to Gaz about various things.

“...I don’t even know why they exiled me! I mean I was their most competent invader!” Zim vented as Gaz listened intently, nodding at every word.

“I think you mean _in_ competent.” Gaz corrected jokingly.

“Exactly! Without me the Armada is fucked.” Zim stated, clearly not understanding what the word _incompetent_ meant.

“So now I’m stuck on Earth for probably forever since I have nowhere else to go. I even joined a football team! Can you believe that? Zim has never needed friends before! Why now do I feel like stooping to the filthy humans level?” Zim asked. Gaz shrugged.

“Maybe you’re bored?” Gaz offered, turning to face him. 

“Ha! Impossible! Boredom is something only the weak can feel. And can you believe the robots they have on this planet? If I could get Gir to function even half as good as the droids they have here, I’d have taken over Earth by now!”

“Eh.” Gaz gave a so-so hand signal before snickering, “remember that time you kidnapped Dib and then I had to rescue him from your base and you literally showed me where the escape pods were?”

“Oh yeah. I even destroyed all of my teleporters so I had to use an escape pod, myself, to get out!” Zim laughed. 

“Why- why do you have your disguise on again?” Gaz asked suddenly.

“I don’t remember…” Zim replied, trying to think, “eh, probably not important.” Zim shrugged as he took off his disguise. 

Suddenly the pair found themselves staring at each other in silence, ruby eyes looking into brown eyes. 

“I-” Zim started but was cut off by Gaz slowly moving in, closing the gap between them as she placed her lips against his. As soon as Zim returned the kiss, the pair began to passionately make out. Gaz wrapped her arms around Zim’s shoulders as he put his hands behind her head, deepening the kiss. Zim playfully bit Gaz’s lower lip causing her to smirk. Both began breathing hard, hungry for each other, before someone interrupted them.

“Excuse me! We got an anonymous tip that there was an Irken in disguise on this planet accompanied by something called a ‘hoo-man’? I will have no choice but to place you both under arrest.” A policewoman said, causing Gaz to quickly push Zim away, breaking the kiss.

“Wait,” Zim said, clearing his throat. He felt a lot more sober now, “we never heard of this rule. Why are Irkens outlawed?”

“What are you- oh!” Gaz realized that Zim was lying to get them out of being arrested. 

“Well you clearly knew something since you were reported wearing a disguise.” The policewoman retaliated, crossing her arms.

“Trust me, he wasn’t wearing a disguise. I mean do you honestly think the Irken military would give a disguise that bad to one of their own? I thought they were supposed to be one of the most technologically advanced races in society.” Gaz lied, covering for Zim. 

“Hey! This disguise is not bad Gaz-huma-” Gaz shoved a hand over Zim’s mouth before he could finish.

“Hmm, that’s a good point.” The policewoman noted.

“We’re happy to leave. We don’t want any trouble.” Gaz added, nudging Zim towards the door.

“Very well, but until that peace treaty is recovered for our quadrant, Irkens will be forbidden to come here. Do I make myself clear?” The policewoman asked, eyeing the two of them suspiciously.

“Crystal. Have a good night.” Gaz waved, sobering up by the minute. 

Once outside the pair breathed a sigh of relief. 

“That was… close.” Zim said awkwardly, color returning to his cheeks as he remembered what had just happened.

“How… are we gonna get home?” Gaz asked, hoping to change the subject, “we’re too drunk to fly back.”

“The nice thing about drinks on this planet is their effects wear off after like an hour. I wish I could say it is for safety reasons, but I think it’s just a marketing ploy to get you to buy more drinks… I dunno.”

“So no hangovers?”

“Oh god… the hangovers are awful. Prepare to feel like hell tomorrow.” Zim warned, running a hand over his antenna, flattening them against his head. Gaz took a deep breath trying to control her nerves. 

“So… should we go? I’m still too drunk to fly.” 

“I’m pretty much sober at this point.” Zim agreed, leading the way to their ship. Gaz walked a few feet behind, her face growing hot as she remembered what happened. What made her do that? It must have just been the drinks… but if that was true why did it feel so right? In the moment, Gaz felt like she wanted nothing more than to feel every inch of him. She felt happy when she was with him too. The happiest she had felt with someone ever. She even felt respected too. He didn’t try anything, even when she was vulnerable during one of the parties where they started grinding. So why was she so hesitant to say anything. What was she so afraid of?

Zim opened the ship and helped Gaz into the ship who was still dizzy from the drinks. The flight home was long and quiet with both too afraid to say the first words. Eventually Zim broke the silence.

“We… can pretend none of that happened if you want.” 


	7. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim asks Gaz for a favor and it doesn't go as planned...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter! It's a lemon FYI so if you're not into that you know what to do...

Continued immediately from last chapter:

“We… can pretend none of that happened if you want.” Zim said quietly, looking straight ahead as he flew the voot cruiser back to Earth. Gaz sat next to him and sighed. Maybe it was for the best. Dib hated Zim anyways and Irkens probably didn’t date or even have sexual organs for that matter, none that were compatible with a human at least. 

“Yeah.” Gaz replied, feeling something well up inside her. It made it hard to swallow. 

“I’ll just drop you at your house and I can walk home.” Zim suggested solemnly as they entered Earth’s atmosphere.

“No, we can stop at your base first. I can just fly myself home. I don’t feel drunk anymore.” Gaz said, slightly surprised by how fast the alcohol seemed to dissipate from her system.

“Okay.”

They got to Zim’s base and he hopped out. 

“Thanks for… it’s been fun.” He said, giving her one last look before turning and leaving. Gaz watched him go, but felt a deep pain inside her chest. She felt awful watching him leave. It was as if everything inside her was screaming for her to stop him. She never thought she could feel this way about anyone before. Jake made sure of that. 

Gaz looked around anxiously, trying to get a grip on herself before she suddenly ran out of the ship.

“Zim, wait!” Gaz called as Zim was about to open the door to his base. He turned to look at her in confusion.

“Zim, I’m actually glad that it happened!” Gaz suddenly yelled, surprising Zim.

“Wait, but I thought you said-”

“I know!” Gaz cut him off, still standing in the street. “I was insecure and scared because I felt like I wasn’t allowed to be in control of situations with guys. Then tonight, I ran into a jerk who started doing the same stuff I used to let guys do to me. He was aggressive and made me feel like I owed him something, so I stood up to him. I slapped that asshole in the face and now I finally feel like… like I’m in control.” Gaz explained. A small smile formed on Zim’s face.

“But with you, I never felt like I needed to put my guard up or suppress anything. You’re always standing up for me, making me laugh, and we both hate humans so… even though you’re Dib’s enemy, I’m glad that we kissed… even if nothing comes from it.” Gaz said. Zim walked up to her.

“What do you mean by this, ‘if nothing comes from it’ bullshit?”

“Well do you even like me? You didn’t even know what a kiss was a few days ago.” Gaz replied.

“If I didn’t like you then why the hell would I have agreed to come with you on this date?” Zim asked, smirking.

“D-date?”

“Yes. From my understanding about human courtship, this was a date… right?” Zim asked, beginning to wonder if he was mistaken.

“Oh, I thought you didn’t want it to be a date so I-”

“Gaz, I like you. You’re much less disgusting and annoying than all of the other human worm-creatures on this planet, plus your hatred for your own kind is incredibly… what’s the word you humans use… _attractive_.”

Gaz’s face flushed instantly when he said this.

“But, you told me that Irkens don’t date or even…” Gaz trailed off, color rising to her cheeks. Zim raised an eyebrow.

“Even what?”

“... Even mate so how would it even work with us?” Gaz asked, averting eye contact awkwardly.

“Come inside and I’ll show you.” Zim said suddenly, walking back toward his base as Gaz stood there in shock. She felt her heart skip a beat. What did that mean? Without much thought, Gaz quickly camouflaged the ship and made her way into the house. Once inside, the door closed behind Gaz as she realized his entire base was pitch black.

“Zim?” She asked, nervous yet excited about what was going to happen.

“Remember how you came into my base in the darkness that one day?” Zim asked from somewhere in the darkness. His voice was low and slightly intimidating.

“Y-Yes?”

“...and touched my antenna?” Gaz could tell he was smirking. 

“Mhmm.”

“I liked it… so now I’m going to do the same to you.” Zim whispered behind Gaz, suddenly nipping on her shoulder with his zipper-like teeth which gave Gaz goosebumps from the sensation. She made a small noise as he moved up, kissing her neck sensually. 

“Don’t stop.” Gaz breathed as he lightly bit down into her soft skin. Zim smirked at this, her reactions were feeding into his ego tremendously. Suddenly, Gaz reached her hand up and gently felt his antenna, remembering how sensitive it was, which elicited a moan from the Irken.

Zim suddenly began feeling her up, running his hands over her chest, down her stomach to graze her inner thighs, feeling between them to her hot core which Gaz gasped at. Zim had also cupped one of her breasts with his other hand, massaging the soft flesh between his fingers. As he played with her breast, he began slowly circling his fingers over the wet heat he could feel through her pants.

“Mmm.” Gaz moaned as he added more pressure. She felt his teeth nip at her neck again before swirling his snake-like tongue up and over her jawline before tilting her head towards him with a single claw, pressing her lips to his in a passionate kiss. Gaz’s mouth opened slightly to allow Zim’s tongue to explore. The kiss became more intense as Gaz gasped. Zim had put his hand down her pants to feel inside of her. 

“You like that?” He breathed, breaking the kiss. Gaz nodded vigorously before Zim suddenly let go of her and disappeared somewhere in the room.

“Zim!” Gaz was getting impatient. This was the first time she had ever been this turned on and she hated that he was teasing her like this. 

“Yes?” Zim asked innocently, somewhere in the darkness.

“Come here.” She demanded, blindly searching for him with her arms outstretched until she felt his chest in front of her. This time, Gaz was the first to act, feeling for the bottom of his shirt to pull it off his toned frame. Once it was off, Gaz ran her hands over his smooth skin, feeling the curvature of his muscles as she grazed her hands over his abs and chest. She could feel it rising and falling as he breathed. His breaths quickened as she moved her hands up towards his antennae, but decided to punish him for teasing her earlier and instead pulled his head down towards her, kissing him passionately. 

Zim was apparently growing impatient too, as he took one of her hands and placed it by his antennae again. This time, Gaz was nice and began gently running her fingertips along one of them. Zim made a noise that motivated Gaz to go further. She now had her other hand on the other antennae as she massaged them.

“Harder.” Zim instructed through a moan. Gaz gave both antennae a squeeze, eliciting another moan from the trembling Irken. “Fuck.” He breathed before suddenly picking Gaz up, bridal style, and setting her down on his couch, surprising Gaz. 

“I did some research and learned that human females like what I’m about to do next.” Zim said in a husky voice before quickly unbuckling Gaz’s pants and pulling them completely off. Gaz could tell she was soaking wet at this point and it was probably even more obvious thanks to her underwear. 

Gaz got slightly embarrassed by this and quickly pressed her legs together. As soon as she did so, however, Zim pulled them apart and held them there. Gaz’s heart rate accelerated and so did her breathing. She couldn’t deny that some part of her loved how dominant he was being towards her and she was anxious to see what he would do next.

However, she hated that he could see perfectly in the darkness while she only got to fantasize about what he could look like during this situation. 

“I want to see you better.” Gaz complained. She felt Zim’s weight shift and heard shuffling in the darkness before a dim lamp was turned on, illuminating the freakishly attractive alien kneeling above her. Seeing him in between her legs like that put every boy to shame in Gaz’s mind.

“Better?” Zim asked, smirking as he bent over Gaz and positioned himself on top of her.

“Mhm.” Gaz replied before she reached up and pulled his head down to encase his lips with her own. As Zim playfully bit Gaz’s lower lip, she felt his hands trace down her sides until he reached the hem of her shirt and began taking it off. Gaz helped him with this until she was left only in her bra. Color rose to her cheeks slightly as Zim stopped kissing her to admire the view. Surprisingly, however, Zim didn’t have the look of wild lust and hunger in his eyes like Gaz expected him to. He looked stunned as his eyes examined every curve of her body. He stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking.

“Zim doesn’t understand how any male human could have hurt someone as beautiful as you.” 

Gaz’s eyes widened and her heart fluttered. _Did he really just say that...?_ She was speechless for a moment, unsure what to say.

“Y-You think I’m beautiful?” Gaz asked, stuttering over her words as more color rose to her cheeks. She felt so exposed under his gaze. She had never experienced anything like this before.

“More beautiful than any human or Irken I’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve never been called beautiful before… It's weird to hear it outloud.” Gaz said, chuckling slightly to relieve her awkwardness. Zim didn’t respond as he kissed her again, feeling up and down her body. His touch sent pleasurable goosebumps throughout her body and she wanted more.

“Can I?” Zim asked, breaking the kiss as he ran a finger along her bra. 

“Here, I got it. A lot of guys struggle with this part.” Gaz said as she unhooked her bra and fully removed it. Zim immediately put his hands to her bare breasts and began experimentally feeling them. Gaz giggled slightly, knowing this had been the one thing he was probably the most curious about. 

“Why are you laughing, Gaz-human? Is something funny?” Zim asked, abruptly stopping.

“No, haha! It’s nothing.” Gaz continued laughing before Zim pushed her down onto the couch and did something that immediately shut her up. He used his long worm-like tongue to trace along her bare chest, using the tip of it to play with her nipples which elicited a moan from her. Gaz could tell Zim liked hearing that as he continued to tease her, causing her to make more noises of delight.

Suddenly Zim began moving his tongue down her chest to her stomach. Finally he traced it along her inner thigh before planting a kiss there while looking up at her. His once stunned and awe-filled look was now replaced with lust. 

If Gaz wasn’t soaking already, she was nearly pushed over the edge when she watched Zim do the sexiest thing she had ever seen. He leaned over her hips and bit down on her g-string, pulling her underwear down and off of her body with his teeth. Gaz let a small noise escape her lips. This was too much for her to handle. 

Now that she was completely exposed to Zim, she noticed that he still had his pants on. She sat up, on a mission to take them off before Zim pushed her back down.

“Let me do this to you first, Gaz-love.” Zim’s new nickname for her and the way he said it in a low husky tone made her heart skip a beat. Gaz gave in, and was really happy that she did because not a moment later did Zim begin gently massaging her with his fingertips. She was surprised that he didn’t just go straight to fingering her, which was what most guys did. 

“You really did your homework.” Gaz said between moans as Zim began moving his fingertips up toward her most sensitive spot, making sure to be extra gentle before stroking back down toward her entrance. Suddenly, Zim sent Gaz a wave of pleasure as he replaced his fingers with his tongue. Gaz gasped. As it swirled, her feet clenched and unclenched. She could feel her entire body tensing up to the pleasure. 

Zim moved his tongue to her entrance and slowly stuck it in, moving it deeper and deeper inside her since it was fairly long. Gaz moaned as he filled her. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced. After a few moments of this, Zim removed the tongue from her and began playing with her bead. Gaz instantly tensed up from the intense pleasure it sent her. She scrunched up her face and could feel sweat forming on her forehead.

“Oh, right there Zim. Yes!” Gaz cried as her toes curled and her hips rose. This was it. Her climax was approaching. Zim held her steady now that he was in a kneeling position. Her hips were raised and he continued moving his tongue along that one spot, varying in pressure.

“Press harder, I’m almost there!” Gaz begged as her legs started to close. Zim held them open and did as she instructed until he felt her quiver.

“Oh my God! Fuck fuck fuck!” Gaz’s cried as she rode out her orgasm, pleasurably shaking in Zim’s hands. Once she came down, she felt Zim slide a finger into her entrance before pulling it out and inspecting the liquid he found there. Gaz was about to say something when he licked it off and smirked. She felt color rise to her cheeks as he leaned down and kissed her.

“Okay, your turn.” Gaz said as she broke the kiss and sat up.

“Oh, that’s why I wanted to wait Gaz-human…” Zim said in a more serious tone.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Irkens are built differently than humans… I’m not sure your body is meant to handle what male Irkens use to reproduce. Oddly enough, Irkens haven’t really used them in the traditional way since we are all manufactured. It’s how they make us into such good soldiers.” Zim explained. Gaz nodded in thought. “It’s not like it’s forbidden to use them in that way. Female Irkens just can’t get pregnant anymore, so it’s more of a pleasure activity.” 

“So what does that mean for me?”

“Zim’s just not sure if it will be comfortable for you.”

“Why? Is it like super big or something?” Gaz asked, even more intrigued. Color rose to Zim’s cheeks

“Er… something like that...”

“Lemme see!” Gaz lunged toward the alien’s pants but was stopped.

“Gaz-love, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Well can’t I see it first and then determine whether I can handle it?” Gaz asked. Zim looked away awkwardly.

“You need to know something first, Gaz. Basically Irkens have always been a very dominant and violent race. It’s just in our nature, which means that mating is also like that and has been passed down as an instinct.”

“Uh-huh.” Gaz was curious as to where he was going with this.

“I’m not saying it would get violent because Zim would never hurt you. Never.” Zim was holding her shoulders as he said this. “But, sexual organs for males only come out when they are ready to mate and at that point instinct takes over and it’s very hard to stop once you’ve started. It’s actually quite painful to stop before… you know. I just don’t want to get to that point where I’m hurting you and...”

“I understand. I don’t think you’ll hurt me though, Zim. Humans are a lot more durable than you think. How much different is it from a human’s?” Gaz asked, moving her hand towards his pants.

“Zim is not sure. How do humans typically compare size?”

“Ha! By measuring? Whatever, I’m sure it’s fine. Worst case scenario I can just give you a blowjob.” Gaz said. Zim rolled his eyes but had a playful smirk on his face.

“Knock yourself out then.” Zim said as he finally let her take off his pants. However, as soon as she did, Gaz immediately froze when she saw what Zim was talking about. It looked about 9-10 inches and wasn’t as smooth looking as the rest of his body. The ridges and bumps were most-likely used for pleasure purposes for female Irkens. Gaz felt her heart rate accelerate. This meant it would be a bit painful, but they could definitely go all the way if they wanted to.

Gaz took hold of it with one of her hands and began slowly stroking it. Zim watched her curiously. So far he didn’t show any signs of losing control, so Gaz continued. After a moment of this and no reaction from Zim, Gaz decided to take it a step further. She put her mouth on the appendage and began bobbing up and down. He tasted unlike anything she’d ever experienced, almost sweet. Gaz continued for a minute, using her tongue to glide up the sides and lick the tip, making as much eye contact as she could. Zim, however, still looked unfazed. 

Gaz had one more trick up her sleeve, so she replaced her mouth with her hand and used her other hand to reach up and begin stroking his antennae. Suddenly, Zim stopped her.

“What’s wrong?”

“If you keep doing that… It’s going to be hard to control myself.” Zim said, worry in his eyes.

“I don’t care. I know you and I’ve already made up my mind. I can take it.” Gaz replied reassuringly. Zim still didn’t seem convinced. 

“Look, how about we come up with a safe word you can say if you feel like it’s going too far. I can say it too if I feel the same.” Gaz suggested. Zim thought for a moment before finally nodding.

“Sounds fair.”

Gaz smirked and then went right back to what she was doing, stroking both his antennae and his manhood. Zim began making little moans of pleasure as she pressed down harder on his antennae, so she continued. After a moment of this, Gaz removed her hands and guided his head down so she could suck on his antennae. Zim’s eyes widened. 

“Holy shit… keep going.” Zim breathed. Gaz smirked and did as he said. She could feel his body tense with each stroke. _I wonder if I could give him even more pressure?_ Without a moment's thought, Gaz decided to gently bite down on one of his antennae. Suddenly, Gaz felt Zim push her down as he laid on top of her, pinning her beneath him. He had a shocked expression on his face. His cheeks were flushed, his breathing heavy. They looked at each other for a moment before Zim passionately kissed her. 

Gaz had never been so turned on while pleasing somebody else before. It was both fascinating and sexy to see what Zim liked. He began planting kisses down her jawline to her neck before he gently nipped her with his teeth. This sent shivers through Gaz’s body, causing her legs to squeeze together in anticipation. Zim noticed this and moved his hand down to finger her gently. Gaz moaned slightly and decided to return the favor, touching his antennae again which seemed to be more pleasurable than his manhood for him. 

“Bite it again.” Zim said in a husky voice. Gaz nodded, enjoying how commanding he was being. She lowered his head before gently nibbling on his antennae. Zim made a sound of pleasure, which encouraged Gaz to bite down harder. She could feel his hand grip the couch cushions for dear life while his other hand started to quicken in pace as he fingered her, sending Gaz waves of pleasure that began building up. 

Eventually, Gaz felt her mouth grow tired, so she stopped and replaced it with her hand. Zim stopped her. She looked into his ruby-red eyes and without having to say anything, she knew what he wanted. She nodded and spread her legs, inviting the alien inside. Zim’s breaths were heavy and slightly shaky since he was probably pretty nervous. Gaz didn’t blame him, but trusted him wholeheartedly.

“The safety word is GIR. Then if you say it, he’ll come running in which will help get me out of the mood.” Zim said in a low voice. Gaz nodded, smiling slightly as she pictured what that would even look like. Her smile was replaced with a gasp, however, when Zim slowly began entering her. It was definitely uncomfortable and would take some getting used to, but Gaz was still very wet so it didn’t hurt nearly as much as she thought. 

“Are you okay?” Zim asked, strain in his voice. He was clearly using all of his energy to stay in control right then. 

“Yeah, just go slow. I’ll be used to it soon.” Gaz replied breathily. Zim complied and continued to slowly enter her until he was almost fully inside, before pulling back out and repeating. Gaz kept her breaths steady as she felt her body grow accustomed to his size. She was grateful that he was being so gentle, but wasn’t sure how long that would last. 

Pretty soon, the pain became numb and Gaz felt her body relax as waves of pleasure began to take over. Gaz made small moans, indicating to Zim that he can keep going. After a while, Gaz knew she could handle more.

“You can go faster.” Gaz met Zim’s eyes.

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes.” Zim immediately quickened the pace, not going too fast at first, but gradually began speeding up. White hot pleasure mixed with pain shot through Gaz. She could feel the ridges and bumps lining his manhood as they added to the friction. It felt amazing. Gaz’s moans grew louder and she moved her hips in sync with his. 

The pair continued like this in missionary position for a while before Gaz started getting ballsy. She grabbed his shoulders and flipped him over so she was on top. Zim looked surprised but also turned on. Gaz started moving her hips again, controlling the speed as Zim went along with it for a while before he wanted more friction. He grabbed hold of her hips and began thrusting up at a fast speed. Gaz leaned over him, giving him a great view of her bouncing chest before putting her mouth over his antennae. 

These actions sent Zim over the edge as he began thrusting harder and faster.

“Oh! Keep going,” Gaz moaned. It didn’t hurt anymore. It just felt like pure pleasure mixed with friction. Gaz held onto his muscular shoulders for support as she bounced on top of him. It wasn’t long before she felt that pleasure build up inside of her. She squeezed her thighs together to add to the friction.

“I’m almost there! Oh my God!” Gaz cried. Zim took note of this and continued what he was doing. Suddenly he hit a spot that sent a strong wave of pleasure through Gaz. “Right there! Right there!” Zim continued to hit that spot until Gaz couldn’t take it anymore. Her orgasm hit her like a truck as she began shaking and holding onto Zim’s shoulders for dear life. Zim continued to thrust, however, feeling close himself. As soon as Gaz’s orgasm subsided she bit down on his antennae, a bit harder than she meant to. Zim gasped and in turn thrust like his life depended on it. Gaz moaned, blinded by pleasure. 

“Shit, I’m close.” Zim said through thrusts. Gaz made a noise of affirmation as she continued to ride. Zim continued thrusting as Gaz went back to playing with his antennae which sent him over the edge.

“Fuck!” Zim yelled as his orgasm finally came. Instead of something warm and wet shooting up into Gaz, however, she felt his manhood begin to vibrate. Gaz moaned as it felt really good inside of her before laying on top of Zim in exhaustion. He wrapped his arms around her and the pair laid in silence. Gaz felt him gently stroke her hair as she traced circles on his chest.

“Guess we didn’t need the safe word after all.”

“Guess not. You’re right, humans are definitely more durable than I thought. Then again, I was holding back until the very end to let you get used to it.” Zim replied breathily.

“I’m actually surprised how similar Irken anatomy is to humans. Some dick sizes can get to that length, believe it or not.”

“Really? I need to do more research on human males then.” Gaz chuckled at this before sighing. She was really exhausted. The pair continued to lay in silence before Gaz remembered something.

“Hey Zim?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything… I never thought I could trust someone the way I trust you. Not gonna lie, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“Wait, really?” Zim sat up slightly, surprised by this.

“I’m usually not turned on during sex… or the guy is usually more focused on pleasing himself than me. It was refreshing to finally see someone care about me that much.”

“Gaz-love?”

“Yeah?” Gaz loved hearing that nickname.

“Will you go out with me?” Gaz couldn’t tell if Zim was being serious, so she got up slightly to look at him. When she looked into his ruby-red eyes she felt her heart flutter. All her life she’d been looking for someone who would respect her and take her as she is. Who would have thought it would be the very alien her brother was constantly seeking out to destroy? The alien who tormented her all through middle school and part of high school. Life sure works in mysterious ways doesn’t it?

“Of course I will.” Gaz said, watching as Zim’s worried face was replaced by absolute joy. Zim quickly planted a kiss on her lips which she returned. Dib would probably murder her when he found out, but that was the last thing on Gaz’s mind as she slowly felt herself drift to sleep on top the first boy she’d ever fallen in love with. 

The End.


End file.
